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A LOVER OF BOOKS AND STUDY, 



THE LIFE OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



FOR YOUNG FOLKS 



TOLD IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE 

BY 

HARRIET PUTNAM 



ILLUSTRATED 



McLOUGHLIN BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

APR 10 1906 

_ Copyrijrht Entry 
C/ass a. XXc, No, 
copy's. " 



Y%1 



CoPYRir.HT, BY 

McLOUGHLTN BROTHERS 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BABE OF THE LOG CABIN AND HIS KIN • • -r . , , , 5 

CHAPTER n. 

THE NEW HOME AM) IHK FIRST OKIE . . . . . . , I? 

CHAPTER HI. 

READING BY THE FIRELIGHT ; THE NEW MOTHER ; THE FIRST DOLLAR ... 20 

CHAPTER IV 

THE SLAVE SALE ; LINCOLN AS SOLDIER, POSTMASTER. SURVEYOR, AND LAWYER , . 27 

CHAPTER V. 



LEADER FOR FREEDOM ; LAW MAKER ...... JO 



• • 



CHAPTER VI. 

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS .......#,, 53 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE PEOPLE ASK LINCOLN TO PE THEIR ['RESIDENT ...... 6? 



COXTEXTS 



CHAPTER VIII. 



I\ THE PRE'.rOENTIAI. CHAIR ; THE CIVIL WAR BEGINS 



• o • • 



75 



CHAPTER IX. 



EARLY BATTLES OF THE WAR 



• • 



85 



CHAPTER X. 



GRANT WINS IN THE WEST, AND FARRAGUT AT NEW ORLEANS 



94 



CHAPTER XI. 



ANTIETAM, XICKSBURG, GETTYSBURG 



105 



CHAPTER XII. 



CHATTANOOGA, CHICKAMAUGA, LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG SPEECH 



CHAPTER XIII. 



GRANT IN THE EAST ; LINCOLN CHOSEN FOR SECOND TERM 



CHAPTER XIV. 



RETURN OF PEACE; LINCOLN SHOT I HIS BURIAL AT SPRINGFIELD 



135 



THE LIFE OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



N 



CHAPTER I. 

THE. BABE OF THE LOG CABIN AND HIS KIN. 

EAR five scores of years have gone by since a 
^ . poor, plain babe was born in a log hut on the 
banks of a small stream known as the " Big South 
Fork" of No-lin's Creek. This was in Ken-tuc-ky and 
in what is now La-rue Coun-ty. 

It was Sun-day, Feb. 12, 1809, when this child came 

to bless the world. 

The hut, not much more than a cow-shed, held the 
fa-ther and moth-er, whose names were Thom-as and 
Nan-cy, and their girl child, Sa-rah. These three were 
the first who saw the strange, sad face of the boy, who, 
when he grew to be a man, was so great and good and 
did such grand deeds that all the world gave most high 
praise to him. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



The folks from whom the fa-ther came were first 
known m A-mer-i-ca in 1618. They came from Kng- 
lancl at that time, and made a home at Hing-ham, Mass. 
They bore a good name, went straight to work, had 
health, strength, thrift, and soon tracts of land for their 
own. 

All the lonor line of men from whom this babe came 
bore Bi-ble names. The first in this land was Sam-u-el. 
Then came two Mor-de-cais. Next was John, then 
A-bra-ham, then Tho-mas who was the fa-ther of that 
Ken-tuc-ky boy. 

Though there was room for hosts of men in Mas-sa- 
chu-setts, yet scores left that state and took up land in 
New Jer-sey. Mor-de-cai Lin-coln, with his son John, 
went to Free-hold, New Jer-sey. They made strong 
friends there and had a good home. When more land 
was want-ed, Mor-de-cai left his son in New Jer-sey for 
a while, and went to the Val-ley of the Schuyl-kill in 
Penn-syl-va-ni-a, where he took up a large tract of land. 
John Lin-coln, the son, joined his fa-ther lat-er. Near 
their farm was that of George Boone who had come 
from Enor-land with e-lev-en chil-dren. One son of 
Georore had great love for the woods, the song of the 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN "< 

birds and camp life. He was Dan-iel Boone, the great 

hun-ter. 

The men on Penn-syl-va-ni-a farms, thought it best to 

buy land on the oth-er side of the Po-to-mac, so the 

Lin-colns went in-to the val- 
ley of the Shen-an-do-ah and 

took up tracts on lands which 

had been sur-veyed by 

George Wash-ing-ton. The 

Boones went to North 

Car-o-li-na. 

When John Lin-coln's first 

born son, A-bra-ham, born 

in Penn-syl-va-ni-a, came of 

age, he left his Vir-gin-ia 

home and went to see the 
Boones in North Car-o-li-na. 
Ma-ry Ship-ley whom he wed. 

Dan-iel Boone told them that there was a fine land 
be-yond the moun-tains. Boone and three more men 
had found a gate-way in the moun-tains in 1748. They 
named it Cum-ber-land Gap, in hon-or of the Duke of 
Cum-ber-land, Prime-min-is-ter to King George. They 




DANIEL BOONE. 

Here he met the sweet 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



found rich soil on that oth er side of the moun-tains, and 
the haunts of the buf-fa-lo and deer. Boone got up a 
band of two score and ten men in 1775 and made a set-de- 
ment at a spot to which he gave the name of Boons- 
bor-ough, in what is now Ken-tuc-ky. 

When the war of the Rev-o-lu-tion came, the In-di-ans 
had arms and shot which had been giv-en to them by 
the Brit-ish. The red men fought hard for the lands 
where they were wont to hunt. The white men had to 
build forts and watch the foe at all points when they 
went forth to clear or till the orround. 

Still, more and more folks went to Ken-tuc-ky. Of 
these, in 1778, were A-bra-ham Lin-coln and his wife, 
Ma-ry Ship-ley Lin-coln. With them were their three 
boys, Mor-de-cai, Jo-si-ah and Thom-as, the last a babe 
in the arms of his moth-er. 

From their North Car-o-li-na home, on the banks of 
the Yad-kin, this group made a trip of 500 miles. The 
end of their route was near Bear-grass Fort, which 
was not far from what is now the cit-y of Lou-is-ville 
Ken-tuc-ky. 

A sad thing came to the Lin-colns in 1784. A-bra- 
ham with his three sons went out to clear the land on 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



their farm. A squad of In-di-ans was near. At the 
first shot from the brush the good fa-ther fell to the 
earth to breathe no more. The two old-er boys got 
a-way, but Thom-as, the third son, was caught up by a 




CABIN IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS BORN. 



sav-age, and would have been tak-en off had not a quick 
flash come from the eld-est boy's gun as he fired from 
the fort, tak-ing aim at a white or-na-ment on the In- 
di-an's breast, and kill-ing him at once. 

It was the way of those days that the first born son 
should have what his fa-ther left. So all went to Mor- 
de-cai. Jo-si-ah and Thom-as had to make their own 
way in the world. 



10 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Young Thom-as, at ten years of age was at work on 
land for small pay. As he grew in strength he took up 
tools, put by his coin, and, at last, could buy some land 
of his own. When he was a man grown he wed Nan- 
cy Hanks, who made a good and true wife for him. 
He built a hut for her near E-liz-a-beth-town. In 
a year's time, the first child, Sa-rah, was born. 

Two years went by, and as there was but small gain 
and scarce food for three there, the Lincolns went to 
Big South Fork, put up a poor shack, a rude hut of one 
room. The floor was not laid, there was no glass for the 
win-dow and no boards for the door. In this poor 
place A-bra-ham Lincoln, II, first saw the light. 

The moth-er, Nan-cy Hanks, when she came to be 
the wife of Thom-as Lin-coln, was a score and three 
years old. She was tall, had dark hair, good looks, 
much grace, and a kind heart. It is said that at times she 
had a far off look in her eyes as if she could see what 
oth-ers did not see. She had been at school in her Vir- 
gin-ia home, could read and write, and had great love 
for books. She knew much of the Bi-ble by heart, and 
it made her glad to tell her dear ones of it. The brave 
young wife did all she could to help in that poor home. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOI.N 11 

The love she had for her babes kept joy in her heart. 
Her boy was ver-y close to her. As she looked in-to 
his deep eyes, she seemed to know that child was born 
for grand deeds. As he learned to talk, his moth-er 
hid his say-ings in her heart, tell-ing but few friends 
who were near her, how she felt a-bout that son. But 
she had too much to do to dream long. As Thom-as 
was much from home the young wife had to leave her 
babes on a bed of leaves, take the gun, go out and bring 
down a deer or a bear, dress the flesh, and cook it at the 
fire. She used skins for clothes, shoes, and caps. All 
the time it was toil, toil, but love kept the work less 
hard. 

As the boy, A-bra-ham, grew in strength and health, 
his eyes turned to his moth-er for all that made life dear. 
In af-ter years he oft-en said, "All that I am I owe to 
my moth-er." 

There was no door to the Lin-coln hut, so the 
moth-er hung up a bear skin as a shield from the cold, 
and pressed her babe to her breast as the chill winds 
swept in be-tween the logs. 

At the fire on the hearth the corn-cake was baked and 
the ba-con fried Game was hung up in front of the 



12 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN 

fire, and turned from time to time, that it might all be 
brown and crisp. When free from toil the moth-er 
taught her lad and lass, and the " gude-man," too, that 
it might make him more than he was to her, to him-self, 
and to oth-ers. The truths the moth-er gave out sank 
deep in the heart of her boy, and m due time they put 
forth shoots which grew to a great size, and were of use 
to the world. 

Four years went by, and then the Lin-colns took a 
bet-ter farm at Knob Creek, built a cab-in, dug a well, 
and cleared some land. The new home was but a short 
way from the patch on the side of that hill on No-lm's 
Creek, but a good farm might have been made there if 
Thom-as Lin-coln had been a man who would stay in 
one place, and work the soil year in and year out. He 
had not the pluck to keep a farm up to the mark. 

When A-bra-ham was five years old he oft-en went 
with his folks three miles from home to a place called 
" Lit-tle Mound." A loij-house had been built there 
and a man found whose name was Rev. Da-vid El-kins, 
and who was glad to come a long way through the 
woods to preach from the Word of God. 

The small boy soon had a great love for that good 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 13 

man. The ways of the child drew the preach-er to him 
and they were soon fast friends. 

Ere long one came by who said he could teach all 
the folks to spell and read. A class was made up, and, 
strange to say, the five-year-old A-bra-ham stood at the 
head of it ! His moth-er had taught him. She, al-so, 
had told him to be kind and good to all. There were 
sol-diers on the road from time to time, go-ing home 
from the war of 1812. One day the young child saw 
one near him when he held in his hand a string of fish 
he had just caught. He gave all his fish to the sol-dier. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE NEW HOME AND THE FIRST GRIEF. 

When A-bra-ham was sev-en years old, his fa-ther 
Thom-as Lin-coln, found his farm too much for him. 
What he liked best was change. He said it would 
suit him to move to the West, where rich soil and more 
game could be found. 

He thought he would take what he could of their 



14 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

poor goods, set off and hunt up a home. So he built a 
frail craft, put his wares on it, but soon got on the 
snags and lost most of what he had. He swam to the 
shore. In a few days the wa-ters, which had come up 
as high as the banks, went down, and folks a-long shore 
helped him get up a few of his goods from the bot-tom 
of the river. These goods he put in-to a new boat, which 
he said he would pay for as soon as he could, and then 
float-ed down the O-hi-o to Thomp-son's Land-ing. 
Here he put what he had brought with him in-to a store- 
house, and went off a score of miles through the woods 
to Pifj-eon Creek. He found the soil all he thouorht it 
would be. He chose a tract of land, and then made a 
long trip to "en-ter his claim" at Vin-cennes. The next 
thing to do was to go back to Ken-tuc-ky. 

The cool days of No-vem-ber had come ere wife and 
chil-dren, with two hor-ses which a friend had loaned, 
and what goods were left, set out for the far off land of 
In-di-an-a. When night came they slept on the ground 
on beds made of leaves and pine twigs. They ate the 
game the rifles brought down, cooking it by the camp 
fire. From time to time thev had to ford or swim streams. 
They were glad that no rain fell in all their long route. 




i 



-rftv 




LITTLE A.BE'S GIFT TO A SOLDIER. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



15 




ON THE WAY TO INDIANA. 



Sa-rah and A-bra-ham thought it was nice to spend 
weeks in the free, wild hfe of the woods. A-corns and 
wal-nuts they found, and Hsh came up when thev put a 



16 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLX 

a fat worm on their hooks. They could wade and swim 
in the cool brooks and gather huge piles of dried leaves 
for their sound sleep at night. 

But at last they came to the banks of one stream from 
which they could look far off to the- land where they 
were to make their new home. All was still there save 
the sound of the birds and small game. Right in-to the 
heart of the dense woods they went on a piece of tim- 
ber-land a mile and a half east of what is now Gen-try- 
ville, Spen-cer Co. This was A-bra-ham Lin-coln's 
third home. Here his fa-ther built a log "half-face," 
half a score and four feet square. It had no win-dows 
and no chim-ney. For more than twelve months the 
Lin-colns staid in this camp. They got a bit of corn 
from a patch, and ground it in-to meal at a hand grist- 
mill, sev-en miles off, and this was their chief food. 
There was, of course, game, fish, and wild fruits. 

Their beds were still heaps of dry leaves. The lad 
slept in a small loft at one end of the cab-in to which he 
went up by means of pegs in the wall. A-bra-ham was 
then in his eiorhth vear, tall for his aore, and clad in a 
home-spun garb or part skins of beasts. The cap was 
made of the skin of a coon with the tail on. The child 




ON THF STUMP WITH nOliniA.S 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 17 



did much work. He knew the use of the axe, the 
wedge, and the maul, and with these he found out how 
to spht rails from logs drawn out of the woods. To clear 
the land so that they could plant corn to feed the fam-i- 
ly, and hew tmi-ber to build the new house was work 
that gave fa-ther and son much to do. At last Sa-rah 
and A-bra-ham felt that they had a house to be proud 
of, though it was not much bet-ter than the one they had 
left. Its floor had not been laid, and there were no 
boards of which to make the door when they moved in. 
Some friends had come to see them, and as there would 
be more room for them in the new house they went to 
live there. It was a glad day when Thom-as Spar-row, 
whose wife was Mr. Lin-coln's sis-ter, and Den-nis 
Hanks, her nephew, came. 

The brief joy of the Lin-colns was soon lost in a 
great grief An ill-ness came to that place and man-y 
folks died. Mrs. Lin-coln fell sick. She knew that she 
must leave her dear ones. Her work was at an end. 
As her son stood at her bed side she said, " A-bra-ham, 
I am going a-way from you. I shall not come back. I 
know that you will be a good boy, that you will be kind 
to Sa-rah and to your fa-ther. I want you to live as I 



18 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

have taught you, and to love 
your Heav-en-ly Fa-ther." 

The grief that came then to 
A-bra-ham Lin-coln made its 
mark on him, a stamp that 
went with him through Hfe. 
When that moth-er died, 
_that dear moth-er, to whom he 
gave so much love, the boy 
felt that he did not want to 
live an-y long-er. He thought 
'his heart would break. He 
staid days by his moth-er's 
grave. He could not eat. He 
could not sleep. Soon Mr. 
and Mrs. Spar-row, the guests, 
died. The strange- ill-ness 
come to them. It came, also, 
even to the beasts of the fields in that land. Those 
were sad days. 

Nan-cy Hanks Lin-coln was 33 years old when she 
died. Her hus-band, Thom-as, made a cof-fin for her of 
green lum-ber cut with a whip-saw, and she, with oth-ers, 
was bur-ied in a small "clear-ing" made in the woods. 




GOING UP TO THE LOFT. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 19 

There were no pray-ers or hymns. It was great grief 
to young A-bra-ham that the good man of God who 
spoke in the old home was not there to say some words 
at that time. It was then that the ten-year old child 
wrote his first let-ter. It was hard work, for he had had 
small chance to learn that art. But his love for his 
moth-er led his hand so that he put down the words on 
pa-per, and a friend took them five scores of miles off 
Good Par-son Elkins took the poor note sent from the 
boy he loved, and, with his heart full of pit-y for the 
great grief which had come to his old friends, and be- 
cause of his deep re-gard for the no-ble wom-an who had 
gone to her rest, he made the long jour-ney, though 
weeks passed ere he could stand by that grave and say 
the words A-bra-ham longed to hear. 



20 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLA 



CHAPTER III. 



READING BY THE FIRELIGHT ; THE NEW MOTHER ; 
THE FIRST DOLLAR. 

With moth-er gone, Sa-rah Lin-coln must keep the 
house, do the work, sew and cook for fa-ther and 
broth-er. She was 1 1 years old. The boy did his part 
but though he kept a bright fire on the hearth, it was 
still a sad home when moth-er was not there. 

Books came to give a bit of cheer. An a-rith-me-tic 
was found in some way and also a co-py of iE-sop's 
Fa-bles. For a slate a shov-el was used. For a pen-cil 
a charred stick did the work. 

A year went by, and one day Thom-as Lin-coln left 
home. He soon came back and brought a new wife 
with him. She was Sa-rah Bush John-ston, an old 
friend of E-liz-a-beth-town days. She had three chil-dren 

John, Sa-rah and Ma-til-da. A kind man took them 

and their goods in a four-horse cart way to In-di-an-a. 

A o-reat change then came to the Lin-coln house. 
There were three bright girls and three boys who made a 
deal of noise. A door was hung, a floor laid, a win-dow 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 21 

put in. There were new chairs, a bu-reau, feath-er-beds, 
new clothes, neat ways, good food, lov-ing care, and 
much to show A-bra-ham that there was still some hope 
in the world. 

The new moth-er was a kind wom-an, and at once 
took the sad boy to her heart. All his life from that 
time, he gave praise to this friend in need. 

A chance came then for a brief time at school, and 
this was " made the most of" Folks said the boy " grew 
like a weed." When he was twelve it was said one 
" could al-most see him grow." At half a score and five 
years old he was six feet and four in-ches high . He 
was well, strong, and kind. He had to work hard. He 
did most of the work his fa-ther should have done. But 
in the midst of it all he found time to read. He kept 
a scrap-book, too, and put in it verse, prose, bits from 
his-to-ry, " sums," and all print and writ-ing he wished 
to keep. At night he would lie flat on the floor and 
read and " figure" by fire light. 

One day some one told A-bra-ham that Mr. Craw- 
ford, a man whose home was miles ofi", had a book he 
ought to read. This was a great book in those days. 
It was Weems' "Life of Wash-ing-ton." The youth set 



22 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



off through the woods to ask the loan of it. He got 
the book and read it with joy. At night he put it in 

what he thought was a 
safe place be-tween the 
logs, but rain came in 
and wet it, so he went 
straight to Craw-ford, 
told the tale, and worked 
three days at " puU-ing 
fod-der" to pay for the 
harm which had come to 
the book. 

It was the \vay 
in those times in 
that place for a 
youth to work 
till he was a 
score and one 
years old for his 
fa-ther. This young Lin-coln did, work-ing out where 
he would build fires, chop wood, " tote " water, tend ba- 
bies, do all sorts of chores, mow, reap, sow, plough, 
split rails, and then give what he earned to his fa-ther. 




THE YOrXG RAIL-SPLITTER. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Though work filled the days, much of the nights were 
giv-en to books. In rough garb, deer skin shoes, with a 
blaze of pine knots on the hearth, A-bra-ham read, read, 
fill-ing his mind with things that were a help to him all 
his life. He knew how to talk and tell tales, and folks 
liked to hear him. He led in all out of door sports. 
He was kind to those not so strong as he was. All 
were his friends. 

The first mon-ey that he thought he might call his own 
he earned with a boat he had made. It seems that one 
day as he stood look-ing at it and think-ing if he cou-ld 
do an-y thing to im-prove it, two men drove down to the 
shore with trunks. They took a glance at some boats 
they found there, chose Lin-coln's boat, and asked him 
if he would take men and trunks out to the steam-er. 
He said he would. So he got the trunks on the flat 
boat, the men sat down on them, and he sculled out to 
the steam-er. 

The men got on board the steam-er, and their young 
boat-man lift-ed the hea-vy trunks to her deck. Steam 
was put on, and in an in-stant the craft would be gone. 
Then the youth sang out that his pas-sen-gers had not 
yet paid him. 



24 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Each man then took from his pock-et a sil-ver half- 
dol-lar and threw it on the floor of the flat-boat. Great 
was the sur-prise of young Lin-coln to think so much 
mon-ey was his for so Ht-tle work. He had thought 
"two or three bits" would be a-bout rieht. The 
coin which came to him then, when off du-ty from his 
fa-ther's toil, the youth thought might be his own. It 
made him feel like a man, and the world then was more 
bright for him. 

A man who kept a store thought he would send a 
"car-go load," ba-con, corn meal, and oth-er goods, down 
to New Or-leans in a large flat-boat. As A-bra-ham 
was at all times safe and sure, the own-er, Mr. Gen-try, 
asked him to go with his son and help a-long. They had to 
trade on the " su-gar-coast," and one night sev-en black 
men tried to kill and rob them. Though the young 
sai-lors got some blows, they at last drove off the ne- 
groes, " cut cable," " weighed anchor," and left. They 
went past Nat-chez, an old town set-tied by the French 
when they took the tract which is now Lou-is-i-an-a. 
The hou-ses were of a strange form to the boat-men. 
The words they heard were in a tongue they did not 
know. They passed large plan-ta-tions, and saw groups 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



25 



of huts built for the slaves. At New Or-leans, in the 
old part of the town where they staid, all things were 
so odd that it seemed as if they were in a land be-yond 
the great sea. When they had left their car-go in its 




LINCOLN S HOMK IN GF.NTRYVILLE. 



right place, they went back to In-di-an-a, and Mr. Gen- 
try thought they had done well. 

A-bra-ham had more to think of when he came home. 
He had seen so much on his trip that the world was 
not quite the same to him. Scores of flat boats were 
moored at lev-ees, steam-boats went and came, big ships 



26 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

were at an-chor In the riv-er. Men were there who 
sailed far o-ver the seas in search of gold, rich goods, 
sights of places, tribes and climes to which Lin-coln 
had not oriv-en much thouQrht. If oth-er men went out 
in-to the world, why might he not go? Why stay in 
this dull place and toil for naught? He had come to an 
a<>e in which there was un-rest. His fa-ther's wish was 
that he should push a plane and use a saw all his days. 
This sort of work did not suit him. Why not strike 
out? Then the thought came to him that his time was 
not \et his own. His moth-er's words spoke to him as 
they did when he was a small boy at her bed-side for 
the last time ; " Be kind to your fa-ther." 

So A-bra-ham went back to Pig-eon Creek to work 
and bide his time. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 27 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SLAVE SALE, LINCOLN AS SOLDIER, POSTMASTER, 
SURVEYOR, AND LAWYER. 

One day a let-ter came to Thom-as Lin-coln. It bore 
the post-mark of De-ca-tur, 111. It said that Il-li-nois 
was a grand state : " The soil is rich and there are trees 
of oak, gum, elm, and more sorts, while creeks and riv- 
ers are plen-ty." It al-so told that "scores of men had 
come there from Ken-tuc-ky and oth-er states, and that 
they would all soon get rich there." 

To Thom-as Lin-coln this was good news. He was 
glad of a chance to make an oth-er home. He 
knew, too, that the same sick-ness which took his first 
wife from him had come back, and that he must make 
a quick move if he would save those who were left. This 
was in March, 1830, when A-bra-ham was a score and 
one years old. He made up his mmd to see his folks 
to their new home since go they would. 

Then came an auc-tion, or, as they call-ed it, a "van- 
doo." The corn was sold ; the farm, hogs, house goods, 
all went to those folks who would ofive the most for them. 



28 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Four ox-en drew a big cart which held half a score and 
three per-sons, the Hanks, the Halls, and Lin-colns, 
They had to push on through mud, and cross streams 
high from fresh-ets. A-bra-ham held the " gad " and 
kept the beasts at their task. With him the young man 
took a small stock of thread, pins, and small wares which 
he sold on the way. When half a score and five days 
had gone by the trip came to an end. The spot for a 
home was found when all were safe in Il-li-nois and it 
was on the north fork of the San-ga-mon Riv-er, ten 
miles west of the town of De-ca-tur. 

The young men went to work and made clear half a 
score and five a-cres of land and split the rails with 
which to fence it There was no one who could swing 
an axe like A-bra-ham, not one in the whole West. He 
could now " have his own time" for his 21 years of 
work for his fa-ther were at an end. The law said he 
was free. Though he need not now give all that he 
won by toil to his folks, still he did not let them want. 
To the end of his life he gave help to his kin, though 
he was far from rich. 

When Spring had gone by, and the warm days of 
1830 had come, A-bra-ham Lin-coln left home and set 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 29 

off to get a job in that new land. He saw new farms 
with no fen-ces. He was sure that his axe could cut 
up logs and fell trees. He was in need of clothes. So 
he split 400 rails for each yard of "blue jeans" to make 
him a pair of trou-sers. The name of " rail-split-ter," 
came to him. He knew that he could do this work well. 
All he met would at once like him. It was the same 
way in the new state as it had been in the last. 

There was a man whose name was Of-futt. He saw 
what young Lin-coln was. He knew he could trust him 
to do all things. Mr. Of-futt said he must help sail a 
flat-boat down the Mis-sis-sip-pi riv-er to New Or-leans. 
He said he would give the new hand fif-ty cents a day. 
Poor A bra-ham thought this a larg^e sum. Of-futt said 
too, that he would give a third share in six-ty dol-lars to 
each of his three boat-men at the end of the trip. At a 
saw-mill near San-ga-mon-town the flat-boat was built. 
Young Lin-coln worked on the boat, and was cook too, 
for the men. 

At last they were off with their load of pork, live 
hogs, and corn. When the flat-boat ran a-ground at 
New Sa-lem, and there was great risk that it would be 
a wreck, Lin-coln found a way to get it off". Folks 



30 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN 



stood on the banks and cheered at the wise plan of the 
of the bright boat-man. 




THE FLAT-BOAT AND ITS CREW ON THE WAY TO NEW ORLEANS. 

When first in New Or-leans, though Lin-cohi had 
seen slaves, he had not known what a slave sale was 
like. This time he saw one and it made him sick. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 31 

Tears stood in his eyes. He turned Irom it and said to 
those with him, " Come a-way, boys ! If I ev-er get a 
chance, some day, to hit that thing," (here he flung his 
long arms to-ward that block), " I'll hit it hard ! " 

The boat-men made their way home, while Of-futt 
staid in St. Lou-is to buy goods for a new store that he 
was to start in New Sa-lem. First A-bra-ham went to 
see his fa-ther and help him put up a house of hewn 
logs, the best he had ev-er had. 

When Of-futt's groods came A-bra-ham Lin-coln took 
his place as clerk. The folks who came to buy soon 
found out that there was one in that store who would 
not cheat. The coins at that time were Eng-lish or 
Span-ish. The clerk was ex-act in fig-ures, but if a 
chance frac-tion went wrong he would ride miles to 
make it right. 

There were rough men and boys near that store. 
Lin-coln would not let them say or do things that were 
low and bad. The time came when he had to whip 
some of them. He taught them a les-son. His great 
strength was his own and his friends' pride. 

Days there were when small trade came to the stoie. 
Then the young clerk read. One thing he felt he 



32 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




LINCOLN AS CLERK IX OFFUTT S STORE. 



must have. That was a gram-mar. He had made up 
his mind that since he could talk he would learn to use 
the right words. He took a walk of some miles to get 
a loan of" Kirk-ham's Gram-mar." He had no one to 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 33 

teach him, but he gave his mind to the work and did 
well. Each book of which he heard in New Sa-lem, 
he asked that he might have for a short time. He 
found out all that the books taught. Once, deep down 
in a box of trash, he found two old law books. He was 
glad then, and said he would not leave them till he got 
the "juice" from them. Folks in the store thought it 
strange that the young clerk could like those " dry 
lines," They soon said that A-bra-ham Lin-coln had 
long legs, long arms, and a long head, too. They felt 
that he knew more than "an-y ten men in the set-tle- 
ment," and that he had "ground it out a-lone." He 
read the news-pa-pers a-loud to scores of folks who had 
a wish to know what went on in the land and could not 
read for them-selves. He read and spoke on the 
themes of the day, and at last, his friends said that he 
ought to help make the state laws, since he knew so 
much, and they felt that he would be sure to plan so 
that the poor as well as the rich should have a chance. 
So in March, 1832, it was known that A-bra-ham's 
name was brought up as a " can-di-date" for a post in 
the Il-li-nois State Leg-is-la-ture. Ere the time for e-lec- 
tion came, that part of the land found men must be sent 



34 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to fight the In-di-ans who were on the war-path. The 
grea't chief, Black Hawk, sought to keep the red men's 
lands from the white folks, but at last he had to give 
up, though he did all he could to help his own blood. 
He was brave and true to his own. 

Young men of San-ga-mon went out to fight, with 
A-bra-ham Lin-coln as cap-tain. They were not much 
more than an armed mob, poor at drill, and with not 
much will to mind or-ders or live up to camp rules. 
Their cap-tain had hard work to gov-ern them, for when 
he gave a com-mand they were as apt to jeer at it as to 
mind it. But in time they learned that he meant what 
he said, and that while it was not his way to be too 
strict a-bout small things, he would not let them do a 



grave wrong 



One day a poor old In-di-an strayed in-to the camp. 
He had a pass from Gen-er-al Cass which said that he 
was a friend of the whites, but the men had come out 
to kill red-skins, and not hav-ing yet had a chance to do 
so, thought they must seize this one. They said the 
pass was forged, and that the old man was a spy, and 
should be put to death. 

But Cap-tain Lin-coln heard the noise, and came to 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



35 



the aid of the old man just in time. He put him-self 
be-tvveen his men and their vic-tim, and told them they 
must not do this thing. They were so full of wrath 




CAPTAIN LIN'COLN PROTF.CTING THE OLD INDIAN. 



that Lin-coln's own life was at risk for a while, but his 
brave look and firm words at lenor'th brought them to 
terms, and the old sav-age was let go without harm. 
The time for which the men had en-list-ed was soon 



36 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

at an end, and all but two of them went home. Lin- 
coln was one of those who took a place as a pri-vate in 
an-oth-er com-pa-ny, and he did not leave till the end of 
the war. 

A-bra-ham Lin-coln, when he had got home from 
the war, sent out word that he would speak where there 
was need of him as " Whig," for he was a " Clay man 
through and through." He made his first " po-lit-i-cal " 
speech at a small place a few miles west of Spring-field. 
It was a short one. While what he said was to the point 
and no fault could be found with it, still, his strange 
looks and queer clothes made those who were not on 
his side laugh and make fun of his long legs and arms, 
and say he would not be the choice of the most for an-y 
post. Still, he made more friends than foes, and though 
he did not, at that time, get a chance to go to the Leg-is- 
la-ture, he had but to wait a while when bet-ter luck 
came to him. 

In the mean time Mr. Lm-coln knew that he must 
find work of some kind, for he had no funds on which 
he could live. He then kept a store with a man, but 
the gain was small and at last they had to give up. 
There was a large debt and the part-ner would not help 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



37 



pay it, so Lin-coln took it all on him-sclf, though long 
years went by ere it was all paid. 

Law came to him as the next best move, and once 
more the young man gave his mind to it all his time, 
days as well as most of 
the nights. But coin 
could not come from 
that source for quite 
a while yet, and, in 
the mean-time, there 
must be food and 
clothes. 

The new lands, just 
there, had not been 
sur-veyed. There was 
need of a man to do 
this. Lin-coln heard 
of a book which would 
tell him how to work ^~°'^'^" ^•^^'^^°'^- 

with chain and rule He spent six weeks with that 
book in his hand most of the time. Then he set off to 
start work, and as he was too poor to buy a chain, he 
found a strong grape vine to take its place. He was 




38 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

right glad of the sums which came to hun then for 
do-ing this work. 

The pres-i-dent of the U. S. at that time was An-drew 
Jack-son. He was a strong friend of A-bra-ham Lin- 
cohi and made him Post-mas-ter of New Sa-lem in 1883. 

As folks did not write much in those days, the post 
of-fice took but a small part of Mr. Lin-coln's time. 
The news-pa-pers which came by post were read, and 
passed from one to an-oth-er, and the post-mas-ter oft-en 
told the news as he went to the hou-ses where let-ters 
were to be left. The hat took the place of a mail bag. 
The grape vine chain and the tools with which the 
length and breadth of the land were found went a-long, 
too, as the good man took up his job at sur-vey-ing. Law 
books must have their share of time and that had to 
come then, most-ly from sleep hours. There were 
scores of folks who asked the post-mas-ter to help them. 
This he did with great good will. He now knew some 
law and could set them right. All had trust in him. 
It was not lonor, then, ere he was at the Bar. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 39 



CHAPTER V. 

LEADER FOR FREEDOM ; LAW MAKER. 

When A-bra-ham Lin-coln was a score and five years 
old, a great chance to step up came to him. His friends 
sent him to the Il-H-nois Leg-is-la-ture. He had then 
not one dol-lar with which he could buy clothes to wear 
to that place. A friend let him have the funds of which 
he was in need, sure that they would come back to him. 
At first, the young man in the new place did not 
talk or do much. He felt that it was best for him, then, 
to wait and learn. He made a stud-y of the new sort 
of men a-bout him at that time. When it came his turn 
to speak, he said just what he thought on the theme 
that came up. His mind told him that all who paid 
tax-es or bore arms ought to have the right to vote. 
He was not a-fraid to say that, though men of more 
years and more fame than he took the oth-er side. He 
was brave, but not rash. His speech was plain, but to 
the point. He did not boast. He did not try to hide 
the fact that he was poor. There were, some-times. 



40 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



those who called them-selves " men," who would point 
at his plain clothes of " blue jeans" and laugh at them, 
and try to get oth-ers to do the same. The great length 
of bod-y, the toil-worn hands, the back-woods ways 
made, talk for foes, but Lin-coln bore these "flings" 
well, and oft-en used them for jokes. 

Though this high post had come to A-bra-ham Lin- 
coln he did not feel too proud to do the " sim-ple deeds 
ofkind-ness" which he had 
done all through his life. It 
seems that one day he went 
out with some law-mak-ers, 
for a ride on the prai-ries. 
He passed a place where 
a pig was stuck in 
the mud. The poor 
beast looked up at 
him as if beg-ging 
his help. The look 
plain-ly said that 
death must soon 
come un-less the 
horse-man orave his 




A KIND DEED. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 41 

aid. Lln-coln was vvear-ing his best clothes at that time. 
They had been bought with the mon-ey his friend had 
loaned him. A new suit could not be his for a lono- 
time. And yet, e-ven though gone past, and at the 
risk of jeers from his com-rades, he went back, got off 
his horse, and pulled the pig out up-on firm land. To 
be sure there was mud on his clothes, but his heart was 
free from re-o^ret. 

Though A-bra-ham Lin-coln had been ad-mit-ted to 
the Bar and had been made a mem-berofthe Lesf-is-la- 
ture, still he went on with his stud-ies, nev-er let-ting a 
day go by on which he did not give some hours to 
books. These books told about math-e-mat-ics, as-tron- 
o-my, rhet-o-ric, lit-er-a-ture, log-ic and oth-er things 
with hard names. 

While at work with chain and tools, tak-inof the length 
and breadth of the land, Mr. Lin-coln earned from 
$12.00 to $15.00 each month. He used a part of this 
small sum to pay up an old debt and al-so had to help 
his kin from week to week. But he felt he must crive 
up this small sure mon-ey for the sake of his new start 
in life, though the gains were by no means sure to be 
large. He said he would " take his chance" at the law. 



42 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM IJXCOLN 

.It was in A-pril, 1837, that Mr. Lin-coln rode in-to 
Spring-field, III, on a horse a friend had loaned him. 
A few clothes were all that he owned, and these he had 
in a pair of sad-die bags, strapped on his horse. He 
drew up his steed in front of Josh-u-a Speed's store and 

went in. 

" I want a room, and must have a bed-stead and some 
bed-ding. How much shall I pay?" he asked. 

His friend Speed took his slate and count-ed up the 
price of these things. They came to $17.00. 

" Well," said A-bra-ham Lin-coln, " I've no doubt 
but that is cheap but I've no mon-ey to pay for them. 
If you can trust mc till Christ-mas, and I earn an-y-thing 
at law, I'll pay you then. If I fail, I fear I shall nev-er 
be a-ble to pay you." 

Lin-coln's face was sad. He had worked hard all his 
life, had helped scores of folks, and now, aft-er so man-y 
years, when he much need-ed mon-ey, he had none. 

The friend-ly store-keep-er tried to cheer the good 
man. " I can fix things bet-ter than that," he said. " I 
have a large room and a dou-ble bed up stairs. You 
are wel-come to share my room and bed with me." 

So A-bra-ham Lin-coln took his sad-die-bags up 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 43 

stairs, and then came down with a bright look on his 
face, and said, "There, I am moved!"' 

In Spring-field at that time was a man who had been 
with Lin-coln as a sol-dier in the In-di-an war. This 
was Ma-jor John T. Stu-art. He took Lin-coln in with 
him as a law-part-ner and their firm name was Stu-art 
& Lin-coln. 

A-bra-ham Lin-coln's first fee was three dol-lars made 
in Oc-to-ber, 1837. There was not much law work the 
first sum-mer. What there was had to be paid for, 
oft-en, in but-ter, milk, fruit, eggs, or dry goods. 

In those days folks lived so far a-part, that courts 
were held first in one place and then in an oth-er. So 
Lin-coln rode a-bout the land, to go with the courts and 
pick up a case here and there. In this way he saw 
lots of peo-ple, made warm friends, and told scores of 
brigrht tales. 

At no time did he use a word which was not clear 
to the dull-est ju-ry-man. All things were made plain 
when Lin-coln tried a case. Not on-ly was he plain and 
straight in what he said and did, but his heart was ev-er 

ten-der and true. 

A sto-ry is told of a thing that took place on one of 



44 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN 

the ''cir-cuit rid-ing" trips. Lin-coln saw two lit-tle birds 
that the wind had blown from their nest, but where that 
nest was one could hot say. A close search at last 
broueht the nest to liaht, and Lin-coln took the birds 
o-ver to it and placed them in it. His com-rades 
laughed at him as he jumped on his horse and was rid- 
ing a- way. 

"That's all right, boys," said he. " But I couldn't sleep 
to-night un-less I had found the moth-er's nest for those 

birds." 

All ha-bits of stud-y were kept, up, and in time, fame 
as a speak-er came to A-bra-ham Lin-coln. As a 
wri-ter, too, he was prized. E-ven at the age of a score 
and nine years he wrote so well upon themes of the day 
that the San-ga-mon Jour-nal and oth-er pa-pers would 
print his ar-ti-cles in full 

In the year 1840, Miss Ma-ry Todd of Ken-tuc-ky 
be-came Lin-coln's wife, and helped him save his funds 
so well that, in a short time he was a-ble to buy a small 
house in Spring-field. Then, soon, he bought a horse 
and he was ver-y glad to do so. 

By that year so well did Lin-coln speak that his name 
was put upon the " Har-ri-son E-lec-to-ral Tick-et," that 



1 



\ 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLX 45 

he should " can-vass the State." As he went a-bout the 
land he oft-en met old friends, those who had known him 
as a poor boy. Some-times it chanced that he could be 
of use to them. 

There was a Jack Arm-strong who once fought Lin- 
coln when he was a clerk at Of-futt's. The son of this 
man was in trou-ble. The charge was mur-der. His 
fa-ther be-ing dead, the moth-er, Han-nah, who knew 
and had been kind to the boy Lin-coln, went, now, to 
the man Lin-coln to plead with him to save her son. 
The case was tak-en up, and much time and thought 
giv-en to it. Things which were false had been told 
but Lin-coln was a-ble to search out and find the truth, 
and when at last he saw it and made oth-ers see it, the 
lad went free. 

Though, at first, A-bra-ham Lin-coln thought much 
of An-drew Jack-son, as time went on he found that 
Jack-son held views that he could not hold. So he 
came to be known as an an-ti-Jack-son man and made 
his first en-try in-to pub-lie life as such. At the age of 
31 he was known as the a-blest Whig stump speak-er 
in Il-li-nois. Two great Whigs at that time were 
Dan-iel Web-ster and Hen-ry Clay. Lin-coln was 



46 IHE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sent, as a Whig, in 1846, to the Con-gress of the 
U-nit-ed States, and he was the sole Whig mem-ber 
from Il-H-nois. 

Of course, friends were proud to feel that the poor 
back-woods lad had come to so much fame. Some of 
the old folks said they "knew it was in him." Oth-ers 
said " I told you so ! " 

Lin-coln had the same good sense that he had from 

the start. 

He made up his mind to watch and wait. He knew 
that he could learn a deal from such great men as Web- 
ster and Clay. When he had to speak he said just 
what he thought in a plain strong way. He did not 
want war with Mex-i-co. He was not a-lone in this. 
But he thought that men who fought in that war, brave 
sol-diers, should have their re-ward. 

A thing that was of great weight Lin-coln did at that 
time. He put in a bill which was to free the slaves m 
the Dis-trict of Co-lum-bia. By his vote more than 
once for the famed " Wil-mot Pro-vi-so " he hoped to 
keep sla-ver-y from the Ter-ri-to-ries gained through the 
war with Mex-i-co. 

Though some fame came then to Lin-coln, funds did 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



47 



not. Spring-field, home, and law work fol-lowed when 
the term in Con-gress was o-ver. 

Those who took the oth-er side from Whigs were 
called Dem-o-crats. They made a strong par-ty in 
Il-li-nois, and were 
led by a bright man 
whose name was Ste- 
phen A. Doug-las. 
His friends called him 
" the Lit-tle Gi-ant." 
This, they thought, 
would make known to 
all that though he was 
small in size he was 
great in mind. He 
was well thought of 
as a mem-ber of Con- 
gress, could make a 
good speech, was a fine law-yer, knew how to dress well, 
and had a way ot mak-ing folks thmk as he did. 

While hard at work in law ca-ses, all at once, the 
calm of Lin-coln's life was bro-ken by a thing that took 
place in I S 54. A plan or pro-mise had been made that 




DANIEL WEBSTER. 



48 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



sla-ver-y should not spread north of the state of Mis- • 
sou-ri. When the new states of Kan-sas and Ne-bras- 
ka were a-bout to be made, this good pro-mise was 

thrown a-side and a 
bill was passed by Con- 
gress which said that 
the folks who had their 
homes in those states 
might say that there 
should or should not 
be sla-ver-y there. 

The man who put 
in that bill was Ste- 
phen A. Doug-las. 
The bill roused great 
raee in those who felt 
that sla-ver-y had gone 
quite far e-nough. 
Most folks at the North felt that the time had come 
to cry " halt." All through the states this theme was 
so much talked a-bout that two sides were made, one of 
which was formed of those who were will-ing that 
sla-ver-y should go on and spread, while the oth-er was 




HENRY CLAY. 





■^t, 



POSTMASTER LINCOLN GOING HIS ROUNDS, 



I 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 49 

formed of those who did not wish to have black men 
held as slaves in the new lands. 

Speech-es were made in great halls, and crowds 
came to hear what the speak-ers had to say. In Il-li- 
nois, Lin-coln, who all his life had been a-gainst sla-ver-y, 
spoke straight to the peo-ple, show-ing them the wrong 
or the " in-jus-tice" of that bill. His first speech on this 
theme, has been called " one of the great speech-es of the 
world." He was brave and dared to say that " if 
A-mer-i-ca were to be a free land, the stain of sla-ver-y, 
must be wiped out." 

He said "A house di-vi-ded a-gainst it-self can-not 
stand. I be-lieve this gov-ern-ment can-not en-dure 
half slave and half free. I do not ex-pect the Un-ion to 
be dis-solved ; I do not ex-pect the house to fall ; but I 
ex-pect it will cease to be di-vi-ded. It will become all 
one thing or all the oth-er. Ei-ther the op-po-nents of sla- 
ver-y will ar-rest the fur-ther spread of it and place it 
where the pub-lie mmd shall rest in the be-lief that it is 
in the course of ul-ti-mate ex-tinc-tion, or the ad-vo-cates 
will push it for-ward till it shall be-come a-like law-ful 
in all the states — old as well as new. North as well as 
South." 



21 



50 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

This speech made a great stir in the land. Some 
men and wom-en had worked for years to do and say 
the best thing for the slave but not one had put things 
just right till Lin-coln said that " if A-mer-'-ca would 
live it must be free." 

Lin-coln's friends told him that they felt that his 
speech would make foes for him and keep him from be- 
ino- sen-a-tor. The orood man then said : 

" Friends, this thing has been re-tard-ed long e-nough. 
The time has come when those sen-ti-ments should be 
ut-tered ; and if it is de-creed that I should go down be- 
cause of this speech, then let me go down linked to the 
truth — let me die in the ad-vo-ca-cy of what is just and 
right." 

From the first, Lin-coln felt as if he were in the 
hands of God and led by Him in what he was to say 
and do in the cause of Free-dom for all. He felt that 
he, him-self, was not much, but that " Jus-tice and Truth " 
would live though he might go down in their de-fence. 

Though not quite half a cen-tu-ry had then gone by 
since his dear moth-er had held him in her arms in their 
poor Ken-tuc-ky home, and it was less, too, than a 
score and five years since he swung his axe in the 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 51 

woods on the banks of the San-ga-mon to earn his 
bread and that of his kin from day to day, still, with the 
great prize be-fore him of that high post in the land, 
which he had long hoped to gain, he casts from him all 
chan-ces for his fur-ther rise, and in that hour stands 
forth one of the tru-est, no-blest men of all time 

Friends kept say-ing to Lin-coln "You've ruined 
your chan-ces. You've made a mis-take. Aren't you 
sor-ry ? Don't you wish you hadn't writ-ten that 
speech ? " 

Straight came the an-swer, and it was this :' 

" If I had to draw a pen a-cross my whole life and 
e-rase it from ex-ist-ence, and I had one poor lit-de gift 
or choice left as to what I should save from the wreck, 
I should choose that speech and leave it to the world 
as it is." 

Men tiien be-gan to think as they had nev-er thougnt 
be-fore. It seemed as if a death-shot had been sent 
straight to the heart of sla-ver-y. That speech, was, 
how-ev-er but the first of a hard and fierce strug-gle 
be-tween two sides of one of the great-est ques-tions 
ev-er brought be-fore an-y na-tion. 

Lin-coln and Doug-las went up and down the state 



5'^ THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of Il-li-nois talk-ing in halls and in "wig-wams" as the 
builcl-ings were called where they spoke. Some-times 
they made a speech on the same day, out of doors, 
where large crowds would come. Both oft-en held forth 
in the same hall, one mak-ing his views known be-fore 
din-ner and the oth-er talk-ing on the oth-er side af-ter 
din-ner. Lin-coln was not known to make fun of an-y 
one, but there were scores who made fun of him, and 
tried to make him an-gry. But he an-swered all their 
scoff with sound state-ments, and found friends where 
oth-ers would have m.ade foes. Doug-las had a way of 
tell-ing folks that Lin-coln said some things which he 
did not sa)'. This was hard to bear, but Lin-coln would 
tell the crowds just what he did say at such and such a 
meet-ing and peo-ple would be-lieve him. 

Lin-coln's print-ed speech-es went through all the 
states, and soon folks out-side of his own state had a 
wish to hear him. They felt that he was at the head of 
the par-ty for real lib-er-ty. So the time came when 
A-bra-ham Lin-coln spoke East and West, in Il-li-nois 
O-hi-o, Con-nect-i-cut, New Hamp-shire, Rhode Is-land, 
Kan-sas, and New York, and crowds would be still 
while he pled the cause of lib-er-ty and struck blows 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 

at sla-ver-y. It is said that when he spoke in New 
York he ap-peared, in ev-er-y sense of the word, Hke 
one of the plain folks among whom he loved to be 
count-ed. At first sight one could not see any-thing 
great in him save his great size, which would strike one 
e-ven in a crowd ; his clothes hung in a loose way on 
his gi-ant frame, his face was dark and had no tinge of 
col-or. His face was full of seams and bore marks of 
his long days of hard toil ; his eyes were deep-set and 
had a look of sad-ness in them. At first he did not 
seem at ease. The folks who were in that place to hear 
him were men and wom-en of note as well as those not 
so well known. There was a sea of ea-ger fa-ces to 
greet him and to find out what that rude child of the 
peo-ple was like. All soon formed great i-de-as of him, 
and these held to the end of his talk. He met with 
praise on all sides. He rose to his best when he saw 
what the folks thought of him. He spoke in his best 
vein. His eyes shone bright, his voice rang, his face 
seemed to light up the whole place. For an hour and 
a half he held sway in that hall and spoke straight to 
the point, clos-ing with these words, 
. "Let us have faith that rif^ht makes might, and in 



U THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN 

that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our du-ty as we 
un-der-stand it. 

A tale is told of Lin-coln's go-inof with a friend, while 
in New York, to visit a Sun-day School at Five Points, 
a place where waifs were brought each Sab-bath to 
meet kind men and wom-en whose wish was to help 
them. 

As the good man saw the poor chil-dren from the 
slums of the cit-y, his ten-der heart was deep-ly touched. 
His own poor child-hood came up before him, and when 
urged to speak he said words which brought tears to all 
eyes. He told them that he, too, had been poor; that 
his toes stuck out through worn shoes in win-ter, that 
his arms were out at the el-bows and he shiv-ered with 
the cold. He said he had found that there was on-ly 
one rule — "al-ways do the best you can." He said he 
had al-ways tried to do the best he could, and that if 
they would fol-low that rule that they " would get on 
some-how." When he felt that he had talked long 
e-nouofh and tried to brins: his words to a close, there 
were cries of " Go on!" " Do go on ! ' and so he told his 
young hear-ers man-y things that they were glad to hear. 
Then they sang some of their songs for him, and one of 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 55 

these moved him to tears. He asked for the book 
where those words were print-ed, and a cop-y hav-ing 
been giv-en to him he put the ht-tle hym-nal in-to his 
pocket, and man-y a time in af-ter days drew it out to 
read. 

At last, as he was leav-ing the school, one teach-er, 
who had not caught his name, when the head of the 
Mis-sion, Mr. Pease, gave it out, went up to him as he 
passed and asked what it was. The great man said, in 
low and qui-et tones, " A-bra-ham Lin-coln, from 
Il-li-nois." 



CHAPTER VI. 

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 

Though Lin-coln lost his e-lec-tion as Sen-a-tor he did 
not seem to care. Doug-las was the choice, and Lin- 
coln went back to Spring-field and took up his law work. 
This, too, all turned out well for Lin-coln and the cause 
he loved, for had he been e-lect-ed Sen-a-tor he might 
not have tak-en just the part he did in the work of help- 



56 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing to form the Re-pub-li-can par-ty. While Lin-cohi 
then gave much work to the Law, he felt the stress of 
the times so much, and knew the great need of help-ing 
the side of the right just then, that he did not go out of 
pol-i-tics. He took an ac-tive in-ter-est in ev-er-y cam- 
paign and wrote much to aid the cause. 

It was in the cold months of 1855 that he went to a 
meet-ing of Free-soil ed-i-tors at De-ca-tur, 111., and 
then and there a move was made to help on the new 
par-ty which was to do its best to stop sla-ver-y from 
spreading. He worked ear-ly and late for the good of 
this par-ty trying to make men of un-like views agree. 
He said his wish was " to hedge a-gainst di-vis-ions," 
and keep all straight to the point of hold-ing back the 
spread of sla-ver-y. 

Work as hard as he might for this great cause there 
were thous-ands who did not think as Lin-coln did. 
They said he was wrong and should they fol-low him 
the land would be in ru-ins and the Un-ion at an end. 
But all this could not stop this good man, for he knew 
that he spoke the truth, so threats, a-buse, and sneers 
could not stir him from his grand work. 

Be-fore this, in Ju-ly 1854, moves be-gan in man-y 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 57 

parts of the North to form a new par-ty which should 
be a-gainst the spread of sla-ver-y. So in June, 1856, 
most of the States sent del-e-gates to Phii-a-del-phi-a 
and then and there the Re-pub-H-can par-ty was formed. 
They chose John C. Fre-mont as their can-di-date for 
the Pres-i-den-cy. Fre-mont was known as a brave ex- 
plor-er in the plains of the West, and one who took part 
in the con-quest of Cal-i-for-ni-a. 

There was, al-so, a par-ty called "The A-mer-i-can," 
or " Know-noth-ing" and they named as their choice, 
ex-Pres-i-dent Mil-lard Fill-more. This par-ty grew fast 
two or three years and then came to an end. Its aim 
was to keep men from o'er the sea out of of-fice and 
make them wait more time ere they could vote. The 
theme of sla-ver-y then came to have a new form and 
there was no room for other de-bate. 

The Dem-o-cra-tic par-ty met in Cin-cin-na-ti and 
named James Bu-chan-an of Penn-syl-va-nia as their 
choice. Bu-chan-an was e-lec-ted. 

Ste-phen A. Doug-las thought he was sure ofanom- 
i-na-tion for that same place. He had done much work 
for the men who held slaves but they did not mean to 
re-ward him for what he had done. 



58 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



"Shall Kan-sas come In free or not?" was the ques- 
tion that, then, was up-on the minds of thous-ands up-on 
thous-ands of the peo-ple of the U-nit-ed States. 

A-bra-ham Lin- 
coln, then, think-ing of 
the mill-ions of his 
fel-low-men in sla-ver-y 
and of that slave-mar- 
ket in New Or-leans, 
which had nev-er gone 
out of his mind, spoke, 
both m pub-lie and 
pri-vate, with tlie force 
that e - V e n he had 
ne'er used be-fore. He 
felt God's tmie was 
near at hand when 
those who had been 
boueht and sold like beasts of the field, should be set 
free. He did not then see just how it would be done, 
but he said to a friend ; 

" Some-times when I am speak-ing I feel that the 
time is soon com-ingr when the sun shall shine and the 




STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 59 

rain fall on no man who shall go forth to un-re-qult-ed 
toil. How it will come, I can-not tell; but that time 
will sLire-ly come ! " 

It was in March 1857, when Bu-chan-an had his in- 
au-gu-ral ad-dress all writ-ten out with care, and he was 
rea-dy to take his seat as Chief in the land, that he was 
told that a great step was a-bout to be tak-en by the " Su- 
preme Court," the high-est court of law in the land. It 
seems that the jud-ges were then to de-cide in a case 
which dealt with the rights of men who held slaves un- 
der the Con-sti-tu-tion. 

Mr. Bu-chan-an thought it would be well to put a lew 
words more into his ad-dress, and these up-on the theme 
then brought up to him. So he wrote that he hoped 
the steps that were to be taken would " for-ev-er set-tie 
that vex-a-tious slave ques-tion." 

In a few days Rog-er B. Ta-ny of Ma-ry-land, 
Chief Jus-tice, gave the peo-ple of the U-ni-ted States a 
great sur-prise in what he had to say a-bout two slaves. 

A sur-geon in the ar-my, Dr. Em-er-son, of St. Lou-is, 
owned Dred Scott and his wife Har-ri-et. He took 
them to Rock Is-land, in I-o-wa, to Fort Snell-ing, Min- 
ne-so-ta, and then back to St. Lou-is. As they had been 



60 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tak-en in-to a Free Ter-ri-to-ry the slaves made a 
claim that they were en-tl-tled to their lib-er-ty un-der 
the com-mon law of the coun-try. Five of the nine 
jud-ges of that court were from the Slave States. Sev-en 
of the jud-ges were of the same mind that the Con-sti- 
tu-tion " re-cog-nized slaves as prop-er-ty and noth-ing 
more." The jud-ges held that as the blacks were not and 
nev-er could be cit-i-zens, they could not bring a suit in 
an-y court of the U-ni-ted States. The claim of Dred 
and Har-ri-et Scott would have to be set-tied by the 
Court of Mis-sou-ri. It was de-cid-ed that some laws 
made in 1820 and 1850 which could have helped the 
case of these two poor blacks, were " un-con-sti-tu- 
tion-al," not le-gal or so as to agree with the law. They 
said all this showed, plain-ly, that a slave had no more 
rights than a cow or pig, and that be-ing the case sla- 
ver-y could not on-ly be in the Ter-ri-tor-ies, but just as 
well in the Free States. This sort of be-lief up-set the 
i-deas that Mr. Doug-las taught, for he had told all to 
whom he made his great speech-es that on-ly those who 
lived in a Ter-ri-to-ry had a right to say wheth-er they 
would or would not have sla-ver-y, 

Out of all these nine jud-ges there were but two who 




EARNING THE FIRST DOLLAR, 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 61 



were brave, wise, and just e-nough to hold to the point 
that It was up-on free-dom and not up-on sla-ver-y that 
the na-tion had been found-ed. The names of those two 
men were Mr. Cur-tls of Mas-sa-chu-setts, and Mr. 
McLean ofO-hi-o. 

The peo-ple rose in great wrath at what the sev-en 
jud-ges had said. With the blood of free-dom in their 
veins they plain-ly stat-ed that those un-just jud-ges had 
"de-cid-ed" what they did in the in-ter-ests of sla-ver-y. 

The eyes of thou-sands of peo-ple o-pened. They 
saw now that there was much hard work to be done if 
there were to be a " Free Kan-sas," and so they gave 
their votes and la-bor on the "free" side. Then when 
the slave-hold-ers felt there were more folks who want-ed 
Kan-sas free, they sent men from oth-er states in-to 
Kan-sas and this got in vast numbers of votes that had 
no right to be put in-to the bal-lot-box-es. 

The two sets had con-ven-tions, the Free States at 
To-pe-ka and the slave-hold-ers at Le-comp-ton. The 
pa-pers drawn up in these two pla-ces were sent to 
Wash-ing-ton. In the cit-y there were men who did 
their best to get Bu-chan-an to try to have Kan-sas 
made a state where there could be slaves. 



62 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Then it was that Ste-phen A. Doug-las went to see 
Pres-i-dent Bu-chan-an and have a talk with him. Doug- 
las was an-gry at what the un-just jud-ges said. The 
Pres-i-dent said that he, him-self, was in fa-vor of the 
Le-comp-ton pa-per, that for slaves in Kan-sas. Then 
Doug-las told him that he should work a-gainst the 
^views there held, and Bu-chan-an told him that a Dem- 
a-crat could not have i-deas that would dif-fer from 
those held by the pres-i-dent and lead-ers of his own 
par-ty, with-out be-ing crush-ed by them. So Doug-las 
went a- way. He knew the slave pow-er would not 
for-give him for the stand he took, but he al-so knew 
that if he did not work a-gainst hav-ing slaves in Kan- 
sas he would lose his own re-e-lec-tion to the Se-nate. 

So a new al-ly a-gainst the spir-it of sla-ver-y was 
gained, though Doug-las did not work in the same har- 
ness as those who had formed the new par-ty of which 
we have spok-en — the Re-pub-li-can. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 63 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE PEOPLE ASK LINCOLN TO BE THEIR PRESIDENT. 

All this time A-bra-ham Lin-coln has go-ing on do-ing 
his work in law and help-ing as much as he could to 
fix in the minds of the peo-ple right i-de-as for the gui- 
dance of the na-tion. 

Those who could un-der-stand the true needs of the 
hour, and saw how strong they were, felt that if they 
could place this man, who had ris-en up in the land to 
lead the for-ces to lib-er-ty, in a post where he could 
have full sway and do his best, they must name him for 
just that work, so, when the " Na-tion-al Re-pub-li-can 
Con-ven-tion " met at Chi-ca-go, May i6th, i860, to 
pro-pose some one for their Chief, they named A-bra- 
ham Lin-coln, and said he was the rnan whom they 
want-ed to be the next Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted 
States. 

Not on-ly was this a great thing for Lin-coln, but it 
was, al-so, a bless-ed tri-umph for the A-mer-i-can peo- 
ple. There were three oth-er men whose names were 



Gl THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

put up for the same post. These three men and their 
friends thought it a most un-wise act to name Lin-coln. 
But as time went on it was found that the e-lec-tion of 
A-bra-ham Lin-coln was the best thing that ev-er came 
to the coun-try. 

At first, when Mr. Pick-ett, an ed-i-tor in Il-h-nois, 
wrote to Lin-coln, in A-pril, 1859, that he and his part- 
ner were off talk-ing to the Re-pub-li-can ed-i-tors of the 
state on the theme of hav-ing Lin-coln's name come out 
at the same mo-ment from each pa->per, as a can-di-date 
for the Pres-i-den-cy, Lin-coln wrote to him in re-ply : 

" I must, in truth, say that I do not think my-self fit 
for the Pres-i-den-cy." Then he went on to say that he 
thanked his friends for their trust in him, but thought it 
would be best for the cause" not to have such a step by 
all at the same time. 

But some of Il-li-nois best men took the mat-ter se-ri- 
ous-ly in hand, and, at last, Lin-coln said they might 
" use his name." Then his friends went to work, and 
in con-ven-tion it was found that A-bra-ham Lin-coln 
had not on-ly the whole vote of Il-li-nois to start with, 
but won votes on all sides, and did not make a foe of 
an-v ri-val. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 65 



The Dem-o-crat-ic par-ty had split in two on the slave 
theme. The ma-jor-i-ty of the Dem-o-crats who met at 
Bal-ti-more named Ste-phen A. Doug-las of Il-li-nois, 
the au-thorofthe Kan-sas-Ne-bras-ka bill. Those Dem- 
o-crats who stuck close to the South put for-ward John 
C. Breck-in-ridge of Ken-tuc-ky. The " Con-sti-tu-tion- 
al Un-ion " par-ty, as it was called, which wished to make 
peace be-tween the an-gry sec-tions, named Bell of 
Ten-nes-see. 

The Re-pub-li-cans were u-ni-ted and ea-ger. The 
e-lec-tion come on Nov. 6, i860, and the re-sult was just 
what most thought it would be. The Re-pub-li-can 
e-lec-tors did not get a " ma-jor-i-ty," of all the votes by 
near-ly a mill-ion, but the split of the Dem-o-crats left 
them a " plu-ral-i-ty." 

In the " E-lec-to-ral " col-le-ges A-bra-ham Lin-coln 
got a plu-ral-i-ty of 5 7 votes and so was the choice for 
Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States. 

A great crowd surged through the streets of Chi-ca- 
go at the time when the con-ven-tion nom-i-na-ted Lin- 
coln. Cheers rent the air, while can-non roared and 
bon-fires blazed. Then the men who had tak-en part 
Jn the work turned their steps home-ward. 



66 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




THE WIGWAM AT CHICAGO IN WHICH LINCOLN WAS NAMED FOR PRESIDENT. 

The next morn-ing a pas-sen-ger car drawn by the 
fast-est en-gine of the " Il-li-nols Cen-tral Rail-road' 
rolled out from Chi-ca-go, and took some gen-tle-men 
straight to Spring-field to tell Mr. Lin-coln of his nom-i- 
na-tion, though, of course, the news had been sent there 
by wire the night be-fore. 

It was eight o'clock in the morn-ing when the par-ty 
reached the Lin-coln home. The two sons, Wil-lie and 
Thom-as, or " Tad " as he was called, were sit-ting on the 
fence, laugh-ing with some boy friends. Tad stood up 
and shout-ed " Hoo-ray ! " in wel-come to the com-mit- 
tee. A brief ad-dress was giv-en by the lead-er, and a 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 67 

short re-ply came from Lin-coln. Then they all went 
in-to the li-bra-ry and met Mrs. Lin-coln, and a light 
lunch was served. It was thought, by some, that Lin- 
coln would set wines be-fore his guests at this time, but 
he thought this thing one that was not best for folks, and 
did not do it. He had learned a sad les-son from what 
he. saw of this sort in his young days. 

Folks far and near then came to tell Mr. Lin-coln 
that they were glad of the good news. 

One good wom-an with but-ter and eggs to sell from 
her farm, said she thought she " would like to shake 
hands with Mr. Lin-coln once more." Then she told 
him, as he did not seem to re-mem-ber her, that he had 
s|;opped at her house to get some-thing to eat when he 
was ' rid-ing the cir-cuit,' and that one day he came 
when she had noth-ing but bread and milk to give him, 
and he said that it was good e-nough for the Pres-i-dent 
of the U-ni-ted States, "and now," she said, " I'm glad 
that you are go-ing to be Pres-i-dent!" 

An-oth-er guest came one day when Lin-coln was 
talk-ing with the Gov-er-nor of his state and a few more. 
The door o-pened and an old la-dy in a big sun bon- 
net and farm clothes walked in and told Mr. Lin-coln 



68 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that she had a present for him. She said she had been 
want-ing to give him some-thing, and these were all she 
had. Then, with much pride, she put in-to his hands a 
pair of blue wool-len stock-ings, and said, " I spun the 
yarn and knit them socks my-self!" 

The kind gift and thought pleased Mr. Lin-coln. He 
thanked her, asked for her folks at home, and walked 
with her to the door. When he came back he took up 
the socks and held them by their toes, one in each hand, 
while a queer smile came to his face and he said to his 
guest, — 

"The old la-dy got my lat-i-tude and long-i-tude 
a-bout right, did-n't she ? " 

The "plain peo-ple," the sort from whom Lin-coln 
sprung, were ver-y proud of him, and day af-ter day some 
of them went to see him, bring-ing small gifts and 
kind words and wish-es. 

One day, when Mr. Lin-coln, clad in a lin-en dus-ter, 
sat at the desk in his of-fice with a pile of let-ters and 
an ink-stand of wood be-fore him, he saw two shy 
young men peep in at the door. He spoke to them 
in a kind way and asked them to come in and make a 
call. 




,yVoleyi\yC^r-^ 



(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH 1 AKHN IN lS6o. ) 



70 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The farm hands thanked him and went in. Then 
they said that one of them, whose name was Jim, was 
quite tall. They had told him that he was as tall as the 
great A-bra-ham Lin-coln, and they had made up their 
minds to come to town and see if they could find out if 
that was the case. 

So with a smile on his face Mr. Lin-coln left his 
desk, and the morn-ing's mail, and asked the young man 
to stand up by the side of the wall. Then Mr. Lin- 
coln put a cane on the top of his head, and let the end 
of the stick touch the plas-ter-ing. Thus he found his 
height. Mr. Lin-coln told the man that it was now his 
turn to hold the cane and do the same for him. So 
Mr. Lin-coln stepped un-der the cane, and it was found 
that both were the same height. Jim's friends had made 
a good guess. 

Small deeds of kind-ness like these won hosts of 
friends for A-bra-ham. 

As time went on the trains brought scores of folks to 
Spring-field. Some said they had just come to shake 
hands with Mr. Lin-coln, while more told a straight tale 
and said they came to ask for a post of some sort, and 
thought they would "take time by the fore-lock." In 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 71 

fact the crowds of men who came to ask for pri-zes were 
so large that Mr. Lin-coln had to leave his old desk 
and go to a room in the State-house which the Gov-ern- 
or of Il-ll-nois had placed at his use. Here he met all 
in his kind way. 

While Lin-coln wait-ed, af-ter his nom-i-na-tion, he 
kept track of all the moves that were made. Still, he 
had so much trust that he said, "The peo-ple of the 
South have too much sense to ru-in the gov-ern-ment," 
and he told his friends that they must not say or feel 
an-y ill will to those who were not of the same mind, 
but " re-mem-ber that all A-mer-i-cans are broth-ers and 
should live like broth-ers." 

But, ere long, it was plain that the storm which had 
been mak-ing its way slow-ly but sure-ly, was a-bout to 
burst. 

As soon as Lin-coln's e-lec-tion was known the South 
be-gan to throw off the ties which bound it to the 
Un-ion. 

The Sen-a-tors from South Car-o-li-na gave up their 
posts four days lat-er. Six weeks from that time that 
state went out from the Un-ion and set up h new 
gov-ern-ment. 



72 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



One af-ter an-oth-er, other states In the South went 
out, also, and joined South Car-o-H-na, un-til, by the 
first of Feb-ru-a-ry, 1861, all the sev-en cot-ton states had 
with-drawn from the Un-Ion. Their claim was that the 
rights of a state were high-er than those of the Un-ion 
when it thouorht it ouo^ht to do so, 

M e m - b e r s of 
Con-gress and oth- 
ers tried to set-tie 
the trou-ble but to 
no a-vail, and 
there seemed no 
' way a-head but a 
tri-al of the is-sue 
on the bat-tie-field. 
Lin-coln was in 
Spring-field and 
could do naught then, save with his pen and words of 
ad-vice to Bu-chan-an who was then Pres-i-dent. With 
ofreat sad-ness he read what had been done at the South. 
There was still much to do in Spring-field in his 
plans to leave his law work, and Mr. Lin-coln felt that 
a great load of care was up-on him, and the task, which 




THE LINCOLN HOME IN SPRINGFIELD. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN 73 

in a few brief months would be his, was sure to be more 
even than that which fell to the first great Chief, George 
Wash-ing-ton. There were times when he spent whole 
days in deep thought, si-lent and sad. 

Still, in the midst of all this work, there came times 
when in a light-er vein he would show mirth at in-ci- 
dents as they came up. A bus-i-ness trip had to be 
made. A group of small girls was met at the house of 
a friend. They gazed at the great man as if they would 
speak to him. He kind-ly asked them if he could help 
them in an-y way. One of them said that she would 
dear-ly like to have him write his name for her. 

Lin-coln said he saw oth-er young girls there and 
thought that if he wrote his name for but one, the rest 
would " feel bad-ly." 

The child then told him there were "eight all told." 
Then, with one of his bright smiles the kind man asked 
for eight slips of pa-per and pen and ink. He wrote 
his name so that each child might have it to take home 
with her. 

There was a lit-tle girl, that same au-tumn, whose 
home was on the shores of Lake E-rie. She had a 
por-trait of Lin-coln and a pic-ture of the log-cab-in 



74 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

which he helped build for his fa-ther in 1830. She had 
great pride in Mr. Lin-coln, and it was her wish that he 
should look as well as he could. So she asked her 
moth-er if she mioht write a note to Mr. Lin-coln and 
ask him if he would let his beard grow, for she thought 
this would make his face more pleas-ing. 

The moth-er thought this plan of her child was strange, 
but know-ing that she was a strong Re-pub-li-can, said 
there could be no harm in writ-inor such a let-ter. So 
the let-ter was writ-ten and sent to " Hon. A-bra-ham 
Lin-coln, Esq., Spring-field, Il-li-nois." 

This young girl, whose name was Grace Be-dell, 
told Mr. Lin-coln how old she was, and that she thought 
he would look bet-ter, and so that scores more folks 
would like him, if he "would let his whis-kers grow." 
She said, too, that she liked the " rail fence, in the pic- 
ture, a-round that cab-in that he helped his fa-ther 
make." Then she asked that if he were too bus-y to 
an-swer her let-ter that he would let his own lit-tle girl 
re-ply for him. 

Mr. Lin-coln was in his State-house room when that 
let-ter, with scores of oth-ers, came in. He could but 
smile at the child's wish, but he took the time to an-swer 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ' 75 

at once, in a brief note which be-gan, ** Miss Grace 
Be-dell: My dear Ht-tle Miss." He told her of the 
re-ceipt of her "ver-y a-gree-a-ble let-ter." He said he 
was " sor-ry to say that he had no Ht-tle daugh-ter," 
but that he " had three sons, one sev-en-teen, one nine, 
and one sev-en years of age." He said he had nev-er 
worn whis-kers, and asked if folks would not think it 
sil-ly to be-gin, then, to wear them. The note closed 
with ; " Your ver-y sin-cere well-wish-er, A. Lin-coln." 



CHAPTER VIIL 

IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR ; THE CIVIL WAR BEGINS. 

One of the last things that A-bra-ham Lin-coln did ere 
he said good bye to his Spring-field home was to go 
down to see the good old step-moth-er who did so 
much for him when he was a poor, sad boy. 7 Proud in- 
deed, was she of the lad she had reared with so much 
care, but she felt that there were hard days to come to 
him. She told him that she feared she should not see 
him a-gain. She said "They will kill you; I know 
they will." 



76 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLA 

Lin-coln tried to cheer her, and told her they would 
not do that. But she clung to him with tears, and a 
break-ing heart. "We, both, must trust in the Lord, 
and all be well," said the good man as he bade his step- 
moth-er a ten-der fare-well and went a-way. 

It was on Feb. ii, 1861, that Lin-coln left Spring- 
field for Wash-ing-ton. Snow was fall-ing fast as Lin- 
coln stood at the rear of his train to say his last words. 
A ereat crowd was at the rail-road sta-tion. Men 
stood si-lent with bare heads while he spoke. 

Six firm friends of Mr. Lin-coln went with him to 
Wash-ing-ton. Mr. Lin-coln was ver-y much af-fect-ed 
when he went in-to the car af-ter say-ing good-bye to 
his old home folks. Tears were in his eyes. 

Crowds were at each sta-tion a-long the route and 
Mr. Lin-coln oft-en spoke to those who had come there 
to see him. While talk-ing at West-field Mr. Lin-coln 
said that he had a young friend there who had sent a 
note to him, and that if Grace Be-dell were in the sta- 
tior he should like to meet the child. It seems she was 
there, and the word was passed on ; " Grace, Grace, 
the Pres-i-dent is call-ing for you ! " A friend led her 
through the crowd, and Mr. Lin-coln took her by the 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 77 

hand and kissed her. Then he said, with a smile. 
" You see, Grace, that I have let my whis-kers grow ! " 

The train then rushed off, but a smile was on Mr. 
Lin-coln's face, and for a brief time the weight of of-fice 
had left him. 

Threats of a sad sort were then a-broad in the land. 
Foes said Lin-coln should nev-er be made Pres-i-dent. 
Their hearts were full of hate. They felt that this man 
would be sure to en-force the laws, e-ven a-gainst those 
who were joined to-geth-er to try to break them. 

Lin-coln was brave. He did not fear. He felt that 
the Lord was on his side and that He would give him 
strength to do all the work that he had planned for 
him. Though he did not doubt this, yet, both he and 
his friends felt that it would not be right to risk his life 
at that time, so they did not take the route at first 
thought of, but went by a way, and at a time, which 
would make all safe. 

Thus the train from Phil-a-del-phi-a rolled in-to Wash- 
ing-ton ear-ly one morn-ing and Lin-coln was safe, and 
must, in-deed, have felt the truth of those Bi-ble words, 
"He shall give His an-gels charge o-ver thee to keep 
thee in all thy ways." 



78 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

On the Fourth of March, 1861, A-bra-ham Lin-coln 
stood on a plat-form, built for that day, on the east 
front of the cap-i-tol, and took the oath of of-fice. He 
laid his right hand on the Bi-ble. A hush fell up-on 
the vast throng as he said, af-ter Chief-jus-tice Ta-ney, 
these words: " I, A-bra-ham Lin-coln, do sol-emn-ly 
swear that I will faith-ful-ly ex-e-cute the of-fice of 
Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States, and will, to the 
best of my a-bil-i-ty, pre-serve, pro-tect, and de-fend 
the Con-sti-tu-tion of the U-ni-ted States." 

Then came the can-non sa-lute while cheer on cheer 
rent the air. 

Lin-coln read his in-au-gu-ral ad-dress as Pres-i-dent 
of the U-ni-ted States. His old riv-al, Doug-las was 
near him, and to show his friend-ly and loy-al heart, 
held Lin-coln's hat. 

Lin-coln's speech was a grand one. He did not 
boast nor tell what great things he would do. He 
spoke as would a fa-ther to way-ward chil-dren, and 
told those who were try-ing to break up the Un-ion 
that their move would bring ru-in to the Na-tion. He 
asked them to stop, and turn back while there was time. 

In sad-ness he told them that it was not right for 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 79 



an-y to try to des-troy the Un-ion ; that it was his 
sworn du-ty to pre-serve it. This speech did much 
good, but most-ly where there were folks who had not 
known which side to take. These saw, then, that the 
Pres-i-dent was bound by his oath to do his dut-y. 

No Chief of the U-ni-ted States, when he took his 
chair, had so hard a task be-fore him as Lin-cohi had. 
Sev-en States had gone out of the Un-ion, made a start 
at a new gov-ern-ment, and found a pres-i-dent and a 
vice-pres-i-dent for them-selves. Some of the folks in 
oth-er states were mak-ing plans to leave the Un-ion. 
The peo-ple of the far South laid hold of Un-ion forts, 
ships, guns, and post-of-fi-ces. Some men who had 
held high posts in the ar-my and na-vy left the Un-ion 
and gave their help to the oth-er side. They had sent 
out the news to the world that they would have the 
name of the " Con-fed-er-ate States of A-mer-i-ca," and 
that their pres-i-dent's name was Jef-fer-son Davis. 

How to save the Un-ion, bring back all the states, 
make the North and South friends once more were 
themes of the day. These thoughts hung like a weight 
o-ver Lin-coln as he paced his room at night, and as he 
talked with the men he had with him. He did not wish 



80 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



to de-clare war. He must, he thought, work for peace, 
This he did till he saw war must come, but he made up 
his mind that the first act that brought a-bout war 

should not come from 
him but from those 
whose wish was to 
break up the Un-ion. 
At last the foe struck 
the first blow. 

It was on a spring 
day, the twelfth of 
A-pril, 1 86 1, that the 
first gun was fired in 
Charles-ton har-bor 
up-on the Un-ion flag 
on Fort Sum-ter. 
The call was sound- 
ed. The orreat heart 




IF.FFF.RSON DAVIS. 



of the North grew hot with shame and rage. 

" What! De-grade our coun-try's flag?" they cried. 
"Tis the flag for which our fa-ther's fought and died !" 
'' We will give the last drop of our blood for it ! We 
will leave our trades, our homes and dear ones, and fly 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 81 

to put down the foe who has dared to strike a blow 
at it ! " 

But in Charles-ton, S. C. the folks were wild with 
joy. The Gov-ern-or of the state, Pick-ens, made a 
speech from the bal-co-ny of a ho-tel. He said, "Thank 
God, the day has come ! The war is o-pen, and we 
will con-quer or pe-rish. We have de-feat-ed twenty 
mil-lions, and we have hum-bled their proud flag of 
stars and stripes." There was much more talk in the 
same vein. 

In the North men wept who ne'er had wept be-fore. 
It seemed as if the worst had come. "But Lin-coln, 
our brave Lin-coln, what will he do now ?" they asked. 
A-bra-ham Lin-coln knew just what to do. He did not 
need to be told. He knew that the peo-ple would de- 
cide the mat-ter and to them he turned. He talked 
with his men near him, his " Cab-i-net," and said that 
75,000 of "the peo-ple" would come to his aid and 
quell this thing. Four times that num-ber came. 

The par-ties, " Re-pub-li-can " and " Dem-o-crat," for 
the time were both much of one mind, " For the Union," 
side by side to " fall in " and march south and save it. 

One state had troops all rea-dy to start. It was 



23 



«2 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Mas-sa-chu-setts. Her Gov-ern-or, in i860, N. P. 
Banks, had long seen the trend of things, the need of 
men that must come, so his sol-diers were a-ble to leave 
at the first call for help. On April 19, the Sixth Reg-i- 
ment fought its way through the streets of Bal-ti-more, 
and reached Wash-ing-ton in time to aid Lin-coln in 
hold-ing the cap-i-tol. 

In ev-er-y cit-y and town there were drum beats and 
the cry of " To arms ! To arms ! " Men were in haste 
to give their help to the great Chief, A-bra-ham Lin- 
coln, whose call they had heard. 

Ste-phen A. Doug-las, now that the very life of the 
Un-ion was a stake, left no doubt as to where he stood. 
He made it plain-ly known that he was " For the 
Un-ion," and he led the loy-al Dem-o-crats of the North 
to up-hold the Un-ion, and they went glad-ly with him 
to the task. 

Much as the men who led the South to try to go out 
of the Union were to blame, it was well known that 
man-y in the South were loath to go and did so on-ly 
when their states said they must. 

Some of the best gen-er-als on the side of the South, 
such as Lee, were of those un-will-ing men. Each of 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



83 



them fought the North be-cause his own state told him 
to. The bad " doc-trine of State Rights," brought this 




DEFENCES OF WASHINGTON. 



a-bout. Un-der it the state was held to have a claim 
up-on those who lived in it high-er than the claim which 
the na-tion had up-on them. 

The men who stood for the cause of the South 



84 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

burned the brido'-es on the rail-roads lead-inor north 
from Bal-ti-more so that no more troops might reach 
Wash-ing-ton from that side. 

Cit-i-zens, un-der the com-mand of Maj-or Dav-id 
Hun-ter, kept guard o-ver the White House and 
Treas-u-ry. 

All through the long, sad hours Pres-i-dent Lm-coln 
stood at the helm and was the pi-lot who, un-der the 
Lord, took the Ship of State through the most aw-ful 
storm in which she had ever sailed. 

It was, in-deed, a glad hour when the 8th Mas-sa- 
chu-setts reg-i-ment and the 7th New York reached 
Wash-ing-ton. This made the Cap-i-tol safe. 

In the West, at Il-li-nois, troops from Chi-ca-go took 
pos-ses-sion of Cai-ro. 

So, by the prompt com-ing of troops to Wash-ing-ton 
and of those troops in the \\^est keep-ing charge at 
Cairo, the plans of the South-ern foe were checked. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 85 



CHAPTER IX. 

EARLY BATTLES OF THE WAR. 

The foe moved their cap-i-tal from Mont-gom-er-y, Ala. 
to RIch-mond, Va. and the first bat-tie of weight was to 
lie be-tween the two cap-i-tals. The folks at the North 
thouorht the war would be a short one. Most of the 
North-ern vol-un-teers had been called out for but three 
months, so it was thought by some that a bat-tie must 
be fought ere that time came to an end. The press at 
the North made a loud call for a " for-ward move- 
ment." From day to day there was the cry of " On to 
Rich-mond ! " 

This hot speed was not the wish of Gen. Scott, then 
Com-man-der-in-chief of all the U. S. troops, He said 
it would be "death to our cause." It has since been 
thought that if the men in the North had been more 
slow to move, the first great loss would not have been 
theirs. 

It was on the 21st, of Ju-ly, 1861, that the bat-tie of 
Bull Run was fought. Gen-er-al Mc-Do-well moved 



8G 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



to-wards Rich-mond. The foe was led by Gens. 
Jo-seph E. John-ston and Beau-re-gard. The bat- tie 
was a sharp one and the loss large. At just the right 
mo-ment the foe had fresh troops sent to help them and 
thus gained the day. Af-ter a hard fight, the Un-ion 



-•;f .Vi'^^/y'SatL ^>K''!'iJ> ^ 




<c^ 



MARCHING TO BULL RUN, 



for-ces had to give up. They fled back in haste to 
Wash-ing-ton. 

Sher-man was Col-onel of a reg-i-ment at Bull Run. 
Though he did his part well, he had a fear that the 
Pres-i-dent would find fault with him for the great loss 
at that bat-tie. He felt that he had done all he could 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 87 

with men who had been rushed in-to a fight ere they 
had had time to learn the art of war. Lin-coln knew 
that Sher-man had done his best with what he had. 
He knew that Sher-man was "val-u-a-ble man," so he 
at once made him a Brig-a-dier Gen-er-al, sent him to 
Lou-is-ville, Ken-tuc-ky, and put him in charge of a 
large force of troops. 

The bat-tie of Bull Run, it has been said, was fought 
to please " the pol-i-ti-cians." It was the only time the 
Pres-i-dent yield-ed to the pub-lie clam-or, and he was 
al-ways sor-ry that he then did so. 

In a few days af-ter the bat-tie of Bull Run the Pres- 
i-dent went out to see the sol-diers. He made a kind 
speech, and told them to " cheer up," for he " knew that 
bet-ter days were com-ing." 

Pres-i-dent Lin-coln felt that while Gen. Scott had a 
ver-y sound head and had done great good in his long 
years of work in the ar-my, he had come to the time 
when age had be-gun to " tell " up-on him. But what 
man could he put in his place? Gen. Mc-Do-well had 
met with de-feat. Gen. Pat-ter-son, too, had failed. Up 
to that date the on-ly off-i-cer who had won was Gen. 
Mc-Clel-lan, in charge of O-hi-o troops in West 



88 



2HE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Vir-gi-nia. Gen. Scott spoke to Pres-I-dent Lin-coln In 
fa-vor of this young man, Mc-Clel-lan, and, as it was not 
ea-sy to find just the one need-ed at that hour, 

Mc-Clel-lan, was kept 
at Wash-ing-ton to 
or-gan-ize the troops 
com-inor in to that 
cit-y and make all 
read-y for a strong 
cam-paign. 

The fine fall da3^s 
were go-ing by and 
Mc-Clel-lan, though, 
he seemed to be get- 
ting rea-dy for work, 
did not bring a-bout 
what folks thought 
he would. They be- 
gan to ask why the ar-my did not move. Word was 
sent North each night that it was "All qui-et a-long the 
Po-to-mac ! " 

Ere the end of Sep-tem-ber came it was clear-ly made 
known to the Pres-i-dent that the friends of the Un-ion 




GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 89 

cause felt that some of the lead-ers were at fault. The 
Pres-i-dent, as a boy, had made him-self mas-ter of 
gram-mar, law, sur-vey-ing, and oth-er things, and now 
he made a close stud-y of war and how to fight great 
bat-ties. While he was a help to Mc-Clel-lan, yet he 
saw, at last, that his own plans were best, and so, in 
time, it was proved to all that Mc-Clel-lan was wrong 
and Lin-coln was right. 

Not a-lone in war schemes but in others the hand and 
head of Lin-coln oft-en proved bet-ter than those of 
men who had been brought up to such work. Lin- 
coln's way with for-eign lands, some of whose ru-lers 
were friend-ly to the South and want-ed it to win, was 
thought to be just right. Then the way Lin-coln got 
vast sums to car-ry on the war, and the part he thought 
it wise for the na-vy to take in the great strife, won 
praise for him. These things were all un-der Lin-coln's 
eye and had his close care. 

As time went on the whole North learned to look to 
Lin-coln, and de-pend up-on him for help in dark days 
and wise work in bright times. When the North felt 
they could not win, Lin-coln said, " We shall win ! " 

While a laree force of men was in arms not much 



90 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

had been done by Un-ion Gen-er-als. Mc-Clel-lan's 
great ar-my grew less and less. Hordes of men were ill. 
Mc-Clel-lan had no plan for his troops to move. Hal- 
leck was in charge in Mis-sou-ri and Gen. Bu-ell in 
Ken-tuc-ky. 

Pres-i-dent Lin-coln saw that a un-ion must be 
brought a-bout be-tween the moves of these three lead- 
ers. He wrote to them, but they did not care to do 
what he thought best. 

U-lys-ses S. Grant, though a West Point man who 
had fought in the war with Mex-i-co in 1843, had left 
the ar-my and gone to a small farm near St. Lou-is. He 
was poor, but he built a small house of hewn logs for his 
fam-i-ly, did his own work on the land, and lived a life 
of peace. 

A chance came to go to Ga-le-na, in the State of Il-li- 
nois. There Grant was a clerk in a store where they 
sold hides. There he was when the war broke out, and 
the South and the North, which had been as one, were 
now two, and full of hate. 

Four days af-ter Lin-coln's call for troops went 
through the land, U. S. Grant be-gan to drill some of 
the men in his place in the use of the gun. In a few 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 91 

days he set off with them for Spring-field, 111. From 
there he wrote to a man who held a high post at Wash- 
inof-ton and told him that he would like to be of use 
and help save the land from its foe. 

No word came back. But Grant kept on, staid in 
the same cit-y, and gave his time to the drill of all the 
troops he could find. 

In five weeks' time Cap-tain Grant was made Col-o- 
nel and sent off to the seat of war at the head of the 
2ist Il-li-nois. He went first to Mis-sou-ri and then to 
Cai-ro. Soon, with-out ask-ing for the post, he was 
made Brig-a-dier-Gen-er-al. 

A force of the foe, led by Gen. Polk, went up the 
Mis-sis-sip-pi from Mem-phis and took the high bluffs 
at Co-lum-bus, in Ken-tuc-ky. 

A man from Co-lum-bus said, "The Con-fed-er-ates are 
get-ting read-y to seize Pa-du-cah ! " Pa-du-cah was a 
place which would be of great worth to the side which 
first got hold of it. If the guns of the foe were put 
there they would stop steam-boats from pass-ing that 
point. 

Gen. Grant saw that he must act at once. There was 
no time in which to wait for or-ders from the head of 



92 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the troops in the West. The ver-y next morn-ing the 
folks who hved in Pa-du-cah were great-ly sur-prised to 
see a fleet of steam-boats full of Un-ion troops made 
fast at the wharf The na-tives had been told that the 
for-ces of the South were to be there that day, and they 
had gone to the quay to greet Gen. Thom-as who was 
to lead those troops. 

Grant's quick move gave Ken-tuc-ky to the Un-ion 
cause and much cheer to Pres-i-dent Lin-coln. 

The first fight of the war in which Grant took the 
lead was af-ter he moved his troops from Pa-du-cah 
down to Hun-ter's Point, near Bel-mont. 

Pres-i-dent Lin-coln strove to have a un-i-ty of ac-tion 
be-tween his g-en-er-als. Mc-Clel-lan had a ofreat force 
at hand. He did naught with it but drill and wait. 
Hal-leck had charge in Mis-sou-ri and Bu-ell in Ken- 
tuc-ky.- They had noth-lng to do with each oth-er. 

Pres-i-dent Lin-coln told Hal-leck to men-ace Co-lum- 
bus on the Mis-sis-sip-pi and Bu-ell at the same time to 
move up-on the force un-der John-ston, at Bowl-ing 
Green in cen-tral Ken-tuc-ky. These men did not do as 
the Pres-i-dent had told them to, and they did not e-ven 
an-swer his let-ter or or-der. Then it was that the 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



93 




BATTLE OF BELMONT. 



Pres-i-dent felt that the three com-mand-ers were not 
do-ing what they ought to do, in fact, that they were 
" three do-noth-ings." 

There were bad times in eas-tern Ten-nes-see, where 
the folks had giv-en out that they were for the Un-ion. 
The foe in Geor-gi-a and Tex-as took man-y of them 
and put them in jail for so do-ing. Those who got off 



94 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

told tales of great dis-tress. Lin-coln wanted Bu-ell to 
help them but he would-n't. 

In the East there was much talk of Mc-Clel-lan's 
long wait. The Pres-i-dent was ver-y pa-tient, too pa- 
tient folks said. A-gain and a-gain Lin-coln went to 
Mc-Clel-lan to get him to start work with his large 
for-ces. 

In the West there were two men who felt that they 
could do a good stroke for the Un-ion if they had leave 
to do it. One of these men was Com-mo-dore Foote. 
The oth-er was Gen-er-al Grant. 



CHAPTER X. 

GRANT WINS IN THE WEST, AND FARRAGUT AT 

NEW ORLEANS. 

« 

It was on Feb. 2, 1862, that the first great move was 
made af-ter Bull Run. This broke the line of the foe 
at the West and gave the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er, a-bove 
Vicks-burg, in-to the hands of the North. 

Com. Foote, with four gun-boats, and Gen. Grant 
with his troops, moved a-gainst Fort Hen-ry on the 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



95 



Ten-nes-see Riv-er, and on Feb. 2d, made it give up. 
A week went by and on the Cum-ber-land Riv-er, which 




THE ATTACK ON FORT UuNELSON. 



there runs near the Ten-nes-see Riv-er, an-oth-er fort of 
the foe, Don-el-son, twelve miles from Fort Hen-ry, was 
tak-en by the same men. There was a stiff fight at Fort 
Don-el-son and 2300 of Un-ion sol-diers fell. At last 



96 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that fort was tak-en and 15000 pris-on-ers with it. All 
the troops of the foe then had to leave the State of 
Ken-tuc-ky. All the friends of the Un-ion cause 
were full of joy. 

Just in the midst of the great good news from the 
West came a thing most sad to the hearts of the Pres-i- 
dent's fam-i-ly. One dear boy fell ill. It was Wil-lie 
Lin-coln. 

While full of the weight of cares for his land, there 
came nights and days when it fell to Lin-coln's lot to 
have to watch the slow steps of death. " It is the hard-est 
tri-al of my life," said the sad fa-ther. At last the dear 
child was gone. One said to the Pres-i-dent, " A vast 
num-ber pray for you to-day." 

Mr. Lin-coln said " I am grlad of that. I want them 
to pray for me. I need their pray-ers ; and I will try 
to go to God with my sor-row. I wish I had a child- 
like faith. I trust God will give it to me. My moth-er 
had it. She died man-y years a-go. I re-mem-ber her 
pray-ers ; they have al-ways fol-lowed me. They have 
clung to me through life." 

A new style of boat, a small queer craft, was brought 
forth by the war. She did a great work In Hamp-ton 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 97 

Roads when ships of wood of the North, as they lay at 
an-chor there, had gone down, when shot at and 
" rammed " by a new sort of foe. 

The Se-cret-a-ry of the Na-vy at that time was Mr. 
Welles. He heard that the foe were to raise the hull 
of the " Mer-ri-mac," a fine craft which the foe had hurt 
and sunk at Nor-folk. They would raise the ship, cov- 
er it with i-ron, and thus make a ves-sel which would 
be of far more use in war than an-y thing then built. 

The As-sist-ant-Sec'y of the Na-vy, Mr. Gus-ta-vus 
V. Fox, went to talk with the Pres-i-dent. Lin-coln 
spoke to him a-bout the new craft and said : 

" We must not let the foe get a-head of us in such an 
im-por-tant thing as pla-ting ves-sels with i-ron." 

This thought sank deep in-to the mind of Mr. Fox, 
and plans were soon set on foot to see what could be 
done to get some " i-ron-clads." Capt. Er-ics-son made 
a mod-el of a craft ne'er be-fore seen. It had a hull 
un-der wa-ter, and an i-ron-clad tur-ret which could be 
turned. 

The Pres-i-dent was glad of Er-ics-son's work, took 
the plans, and eight months lat-er the worth of the boat 
made from them was seen in the great fight be-tween 



98 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Mer-rl-mac and the Mon-i-tor at Hamp-ton Roads. 
The " Mer-ri-mac " thought she would have full swing 
and crush all the ships of the Un-ion. She did some 
sad work both in the loss of ships and men, and she 
would have made an end of all, had there not, at mid- 
night, come up-on the scene, straight down from New 
York, John Er-ics-son's lit-tle i-ron ves-sel, the " Mon-i- 
tor." From that time i-ron ships, in place of those 
made of wood, were made for war use. 

In the West, Grant, when he got through with Don- 
el-son, went up theTen-nes-see to take Cor-inth in North 
Mis-sis-sip-pi. At that place man-y rail-roads met. 
Fresh troops had been sent from the East, and as Grant 
moved on with them he left some at points where boats 
could land. He, him-self, came to a halt on the west 
bank of the stream, at Shi-loh, with 30,000 to 40,000 
men. This was a good place for him, for from here he 
could keep watch on the rail-road that went through 
the South and thus vex the foe then in great force at 
Cor-inth. 

The foe had, at its head. Gen, A. S. John-ston and 
it was his wish to crush Grant ere Bu-ell could send 
him more troops. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN 



99 




THE CHURCH AT SHILOH. 

• Shi-loh, a small log church, was on a ridge a few 
miles back from Pitts-burg Land-ing. The troops that 
were to be put in front had their lines drawn up to face 
the Cor-inth road, for by that route the foe must come. 
Gen. Sher-man had charge of the men on that line. 

It was on Ap-ril 6th, 1862, that Gen. A. S. John- 
ston made a fierce at-tack on the lines at Shi-loh. 
There was great loss on both sides. Sher-man was 
twice shot, while horse af-ter horse fell un-der him, but 
he stuck to his work, and kept up the hearts of his men. 

The next day the fight went on a-gain and ground 
was won and lost on both sides. New troops, which 
had come in the night to the boys in blue, gave them 
much hope and did fine work. At last it was push, 



1 



100 



THE LIFE OB' ABRAHAM LIXCOLN 



push, the foe back so that they could gain no more 
ground. This went on, till, at three o'clock the cry of 
" Charge ! " rang out up-on the air. With loud cheers, 
and their guns held in front of them, the Un-ion troops 




THE LAST CHARGE AT SHILOH. 



made a bold brave dash and drove the foe from the 
field. 

The loss was great on both sides. When the foe 
lost their lead-er. Gen. A. S. John-ston, they lost heart, 
and be-ing much worn by hours of dire work, had to 
give up. 

Af-ter Shi-loh, a move was made a-gainst Cor-inth. 



IHE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 101 

a-bout 2 2 miles off. Word had gone forth that Beau- 
re-gard had a large force of South-ern troops with him 
at that place, but when the Un-ion ar-my came close, 
the foe fled from it, and left most of it in flames. When 
the Un-ion troops came, it was found that a brave show 
had been made with a lot of old guns made of wood, in 
the place of the i-ron sort which could do harm. 

The Un-ion cause, by this last step, held the Mis-sis- 
sip-pi Riv-er as far down as Vicks-burg. 

Pres-i-dent Lin-coln's heart was glad at the strong 
work in the West, the news of which came to him but 
a few weeks af-ter he had heard from the South that 
Ad-mir-al Far-ra-gut and Gen. But-ler held the cit-y of 
New Or-leans. 

Far-ra-gut then went up the Mis-sis-sip-pi as far as 
Vicks-burg and it was thought then that the whole riv- 
er would soon be held by Un-ion for-ces. 

The gains by the boys in blue at that time made a 
stir in the South and then it was that each man who 
could bear arms -had to take part in the war. 

The men who led the troops of the South did strong 
work for their cause. In 1861 there were fights big and 
small and most of these were won by the South. In 



102 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



\ 



-\ "^ \ 










SUITHEKN TROUl'S LEAVING CORINTH 



1862 the war went on and the North won some hard 
fights, though at times there were great loss-es and dark 
days. The South bore up well, and though crops were 
poor, and they could not get goods, still they fought as 
brave-ly as ev-er, and felt that they should at last win. 
In Vir-gin-ia, the foe had some grand men to lead 
them, and for a time it seemed as if they must win. 



103 
THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

They were bound to-geth-er with strong ties, and heart, 
head, and hand, each, did its best. 

When Lin-coln came to be Pres-t-dent tt was wel 
known that he had a great dis-like to sla-ver-y. Bu 
the war, as he said, time af-ter time, was" not fougl 

to put down sla-ver-y but to save the Un-,on. At the 

North man-y found fault with Lin-coln be-cause he d,d 

not make haste to set the slaves free The Pres-,-de,^ 

plain-ly said, " If I could save the Un-.on, though I did 

not free a slave I would do it. Still, ,n my own heart 

it is my wish, that all men, in all lands, should be free. 

Un-co n tried hard to keep the bor-der states fnenddy 

to the Un-ion cause. One way that would have made 

,hem foes would have been to free the slaves at once. 

One day, while sail-ing down the Po-to-mac Riv-er, 
en;outetothe ar-my for a vis-it, the Pres-.-dent wrote 
out some thoughts on this theme which had been ml. 
n.ind for a long time. Then, when Con-gres had 
made an end of its work, af-ter hav-mg passed an act 
^ aking a.way the prop-er-ty" of the foe, there was a 
Jeet-ing of the cab-i-net, made up of men who were a 
help to the Pres-i-dent. __ - ^^ ,^^ 

. • Slaves were " prop-er-ty and as pi op e y 



104 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

seized, slaves, of course, could be tak-en. They were at 
that time at work as team-sters and on forts. Why, 
then, would it not be a good time to give them their 
free-dom ? With this ques-tion in his mind, the Pres-i- 
dent went to his desk and' took from it a pa-per which 
he then read to his " cab-i-net" It said; "On and af- 
ter the first day of Jan-u-a-ry, 1863, all slaves with- 
in a-ny state or states where the con-sti-tu-tion-al 
au-thor-i-ty*of the U-ni-ted States shall not be re-coe- 
nized, sub-mit-ted to, and main-tained, shall thence- 
for-ward and for-ev-er be free." 

The Pres-i-dent told those to whom he had read his 
"draft" that he had not called them to ask their ad-vice 
but to place the mat-ter be-fore them. 

The wise Se-cret-a-ry Sew-ard said that though he 
was in fa-vor of such a draft, he thought the time was 
not ripe for it. He thought it would be best to wait 
un-til the troops had won more fights. It was then de- 
ci-ded that at least some months should go by ere this 
" draft " should be made known. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 105 



CHAPTER XL 

ANTIETAM, VICKSBURG, GETTYSBURG. 

It is true that while good strokes were made in the 
West, the East did not do her part to put down the 
foe as soon as she might have done, and this was laid to 
lead-ers, for the troops were brave and read-y to fight 
when they had a chance. 

What was called " The Pen-in-su-lar Cam-paign " 
made a start 'twixt the York Riv-er and the James 
Riv-er, on land which forms a pen-in-su-la. 

Here through the spring and sum-mer of 1862, Mc- 
Clel-lan held large for-ces. There was much fight-ing, 
and at one time the Un-ion for-ces were with-in eight 
miles of Rich-mond, but in the end they had to fall back 
and with-draw from the Pen-in-su-la. 

Pres-i-dent Lin-coln at length felt that Mc-Clel-lan 
was no match for the Con-fed-er-ate Gen-er-als, Lee and 
" Stone-wall " Jack-son. So he had to put a new man 
at the head of the ar-my in the East. This man was 
Gen. Pope who had done well in the West. 



106 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Then came the sec-ond Bull Run fight, Au-gust 29 
and ^o 1862. The foe won. Lin-colnTound Pope 
" not up to the mark," as a lead-er, and so put Mc-Clel- 
lan back once more. 

It was on the i6th and 17th of Sept. 1862, that Mc- 
Clel-lan and Lee fought at An-tie-tam Creek, near 
Sharps-burg, in Ma-ry-land. This was one of the most 
se-vere bat-ties of the war. On Sept. 18, Lee with-drew 
a-cross the Po-to-mac, and Mc-Clel-lan slow-ly went af- 
ter him. 

The Pres-i-dent had wait-ed in hopes that a " vic- 
to-ry" would come to the ar-my of the East, ere he 
made known his plan of free-ing slaves in some of the 
states. His own words are, " I had made a sol-emn 
vow to God that if Lee were driv-en back from Ma-ry- 
land I would crown the re-sult by a dec-la-ra-tion of 
free-dom to the slaves." 

So when the An-tie-tam fight came, and Lee and 
troops were driv-en back from Ma-ry-land, it gave so 
much hope to the Un-ion cause that Lin-coln felt it was 
the time to send forth the "draft" he made two months 
be-fore. This pa-per said that on the first day of Jan-u- 
ary, 1863, all slaves in those states which had left the 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLX 107 

Un-ion should be free. The slaves in those states 
which had 7iot gone off, such as Mis-sou-ri and Ken- 
tuc-ky, were not then to be free. 

It had been thought by some that harm would come 
from this pa-per, but it did not. It was a wise move, 
and a bold one, and brought much good. 

Great joy was felt at the North, and fresh hope came 
with the thought that the war might soon be at an end. 
But there were two more years of sad, sad work, loss, 
and death on both sides. 

Tlic Pres-i-dent had found that it would be best for 
Mc-Clel-lan to give up his post "for good." Burn-side 
took his place, but it was soon seen that he was too 
rash. 

His plan was to cross the Rap-pa-han-nock at Fred- 
er-icks-burg and strike at the foe on the heights back 
of the town on Dec. 13, 1862. There was great loss of 
life and no gain. The foe won. 

Gen. Hook-er was the next man to take charge of 
the ar-my in the East, but no moves were made till 
May, '63. 

In the mean time a great deal was done in the West. 
Grant once more made a move against Vicks-burg, one 



108 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



of the two strong points on the MIs-sis-sip-pi Riv-er 
still held by the foe. The North had, at times, thought 
Grant "slow" but Lin-coln had great trust in him, and 
said, "Wait. Give him a chance." 

Vicks-burg is on the east bank of the riv-er. Grant's 




GUNBOATS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



aim was to get to his troops and gun-boats be-low the 
town, and the plan he took was to march his men down 
the west bank, and let the gun-boats run past the 
eisfht miles of bat-ter-ies. 

It was a-bout the mid-die of A-pril, 1863, when the 
gun-boats passed the bat-ter-ies. The troops marched 
down the west bank of the riv-er, and then crossed in 
boats to the east side, at a point where they could reach 
the foe. On the first of Mav there was a fiirht near 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 109 



Port Gib-son with the fore-guard of Gen. Pem-ber- 
ton's ar-my. Here the foe soon had more of the South- 
ern troops come to help him, led by Gen. John-ston. 
Grant saw a chance to get be-tween these two sets of 
troops, and on May 14, 1863, he put down John-ston. 
Then he beat Pem-ber-ton in two more fiorhts at Cham- 
pi-on Hills and at Black Riv-er. So the foe had to 
flee, for safe-ty, to Vicks-burg, where Grant had made 
up his mind to take him, af-ter a while, with all the rest 
of the foe he could find in that cit-y. 

Then came the Siege of Vicks-burg which went on for 
near-ly sev-en weeks. The foe held out as long as there 
was a crust of bread left. Grant said he should stay 
there till he took the town. 

These were his words; 

" I can-not tell just when I shall take the town, but 
I mean to stay till I do, if it takes me thir-ty years." 

The end came on July 4, 1863. The foe sent up 
white flags on all their lines and the men of the South 
filed out and stacked their arms in front of the Un-ion 
for-ces. 

Grant rode in-to Vicks-burof at head of Lo-o^an's 
corps. He was proud of his troops and that the right 



110 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




FIRST CHARGE AT VICKSBVRG. 

had won. The news flew fast o'er the land. Lin-cohi 
sent strong words of thanks to Grant, gave him high 
praise, and made him Ma-jor Gen-er-al. 

At the same time that Grant was at work on the 
Vicks-burg Siege, Un-ion troops, led by Gen. N. P. 
Banks, fought to get Port Hud-son which lay at the 
south end of the reb-el part of the riv-er. At last it 
had to yield, and on Ju-ly 9, 1863, it hauled down its 
flag of stars and bars. Then the brave " boys in blue " 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 111 

marched in and flung out the star-span-gled ban-ner 
to the breeze. From that time on the great Mis-sis- 
sip-pi Riv-er was a safe road-way for all un-armed craft 
which flew the stars and stripes. 

In the East, in the Spring of '63, Hoo-ker fought the 
" Chan-cel-lors-ville Cam-paign " and lost. Then, on 
May 6th, he re-crossed the Rap-pa-han-nock. 

Lee had tak-en his ar-my a-cross the Po-to-mac and 
was in Pcnn-syl-va-ni-a. 

Hoo-ker's place was giv-en to Gen. George G. Meade. 
The Un-ion ar-my and the foe met on the first day of 
July, 1863. Friends of each side, North and South, 
held their breath with fear. 

Lee, who had been so strong in de-fence was now to 
prove, for the last time, what he could do in at-tack. 
His plan to move in-to Penn-syl-va-nia was a good one, 
but Jack-son, who had long been a great help to him, 
was hurt and could not be there. Lee felt this loss. 

June 3, 1863, Lee marched up the Val-ley of Shen- 
an-do-ah towards Cham-bers-burg. The Un-ion ar-my 
too took the same course, but on the oth-er, or eas-tern, 
side of the Blue Ridge. " Stu-art's Cav-al-ry " held the 
passes and this kept the Un-ion troops from know-ing 



112 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

what went on on the western side. Lee's ar-my was the 
best of all the foe. Af-ter cross-ing the Po-to-mac the 
two ar-mies looked for each oth-er. Lee, fac-ing east, was 
com-Ing from the west of the town of Get-tys-burg, and 
Meade was tak-ing his post on Cem-e-ter-y Ridge, at 
the south. It was not thought that a bat-tie, by all, 
would then be-gin, but " Meade's Cav-al-ry," led by Bu- 
ford, came up-on Lee's front guard on Ju-ly i, 1863, 
and they fought. The Un-ion men were forced back 
and had loss-es. Night then came on, and by that time 
both sides, each with about 80,000 men, were in the 
moon-light up-on the ground. The troops were in good 
trim and of high cour-age. On the next day the foe 
car-ried works at both ends of the Un-ion line. The 
third day the Un-ion ar-my got back the lost ground on 
its right. The foe then made a fierce charge and broke 
through the cen-tre of the Un-ion ar-my, but were at 
last put down and sent back. The end of the charge 
was the end of the bat-tie and pointed to the end of the 
war. In this fight Lee lost 36,000 men. With those 
he lost the first time he made a thrust at the North, 
and these, 90,000 of some of the best troops in the 
world laid down their lives for the cause they held dear. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



113 



Meade, at this time, lost 23,000 men. The Un-ion 
was saved. Meade let Lee go slow-ly a-cross the Po- 
to-mac. One more move was made by Lee two or 
three months lat-er in a quick dash o'er the Rap-i-dan, 
with the thought that he might get a-round Meade's 
ricrht flank. But Meade was too bright to be thus 




ARMY WAGON, 



caught. Then he tried the same game on Lee but with 
no gain, and so the " Cam-paign of 1863," in the East, 
came to an end. 

The great news that the Un-ion troops had won at 
Get-tys-burg, and that the Un-ion for-ces had al-so won 
in the West, and that the whole Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er 
was in the hands of the boys in blue, flashed o'er the 
wires with-in a few days of each oth-er. 



25 



114 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Pres-i-dent Lin-coln's heart was made glad. The sad 
look left his face. When some one in a high post at 
Wash-ing-ton asked him if he had not felt "great anx- 
i-e-ty" a-bout the fate of the Un-ion cause at Get-tys- 
burg, he said he "Thought it would all come out right." 
Then came the ques-tion, " Why ? " At first Lin-coln 
did not speak, then he said : 

" Be-fore the bat-tie I went a-lone to my room in the 
White House and prayed to Al-migh-ty God to give 
us the vic-to-ry. I said to Him that this was His war, 
and that if He would stand by the na-tion now, I would 
stand by Him the rest of my life. He gave us the vic- 
to-ry, and I pro-pose to keep my pledge. I rose from 
my knees with a feel-ing of deep and se-rene con-fi- 
dence and had no doubt of the re-sult from that hour." 

Get-tys-burg, Vicks-burg, and Port Hud-son made a 
turn-ing point in his-to-ry. 






"-S 










•J^*j}^,, 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 115 



CHAPTER XII. 

chattanooga, chickamauga, lookout mountain. 
Lincoln's Gettysburg speech. 

In the West the war was now in two parts. The Un- 
ion troops had won their first point, which was to hold 
the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er. But there had to be a long, 
fierce fight ere they could gain cen-tral Ten-nes-see and 
north Geor-gi-a. The foe led by Bragg, and the Un-ion 
troops by Ro-se-crans fought their best but it was not 
till the warm months, and the fall of 1863 that Ro-se- 
crans, at last, made Bragg fall back, bit by bit, un-til 
Chat-ta-noo-ga was in the hands of the Un-ion for-ces. 
Then more of the foe went to help Bragg, and the great 
fight of Chick-a-mau-ga came on Sept. 19 and 20, 1863. 
The first day the Un-ion ar-my won ; but the next 
day the right half of Ro-se-crans' ar-my was brok-en 
and fled to Chat-ta-noo-ga. George H. Thom-as, a 
brave man and a hard fight-er, by great skill held the 
left wing a-gainst charge af-ter charge that the foe made 
up-on it, and gave Ro-se-crans time to take such steps 



116 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



as would make safe the Un-ion men who had fled to 

Chat-ta-noo-ga. 

Grant then had all the troops west of the mount-ains 

in his charge. He 
gave Ro-se-crans 
place to Thom-as, 
who was called 
"The Rock of 
Chick-a-mau-ga." 
Grant him-self, with 
Thom-as next, then 
took com-mand of 
the be-sieged for-ces 
at Chat-ta-noo-ga. 

Some of Bragg's 
men had been sent 

off to make a strike at Burn-side in East Ten-nes-see, 

so Grant saw that he had a good chance to make a 

move on the rear of Bragg's ar-my. 

The line of the foe was twelve miles long, 'twixt Mis- 

sion-a-ry Ridge on the east and Look-out Mount-ain on 

the south. The last is a height which makes a sharp 

rise of 2,000 feet. 




AT MISSIONARY RIDGE. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 117 



Grant's plan was to have his troops chmb the two 
heights and storm the works that had been built on 
them. If he could take them, he would then com-mand 
the val-ley in which Bragg's troops lay, and could force 
him to give up the siege. He gave Hoo-ker the task of 
mak-ing a strike at Look-out Mount-ain and Sher-man 
had his work to do at the Ridge. 

There was a dense mist on the morn-ing of Nov. 23. 
Sher-man went to work and got up-on the north end of 
the Ridge, while Hoo-ker did his part on Look-out 
Mount-ain. Hoo-ker's troops fought their way right up 
to the top and when there flung to the breeze the stars 
and stripes. 

Grant stood on Or-chard Knob and gave the or-der 
for 20,000 men to take a line of earth works which lay 
at the base of the Ridge. This they did and Grant 
then saw that the time was ripe for a great move. He 
gave the word for a charge to be made a-long the whole 
line of bat-tie. 

The day drew near its close. The shad-ow of Look- 
out Mount-ain fell far a-cross the plain. The last rays 
of the sun, ere it sank from sight, shone bright on the 
arms of the troops as on they came. 



118 



THE LIFE OF ARRAHA^f I.IXCOLN 







A CHARGE ALL ALONG THE LINE. 



Fierce was the fire which struck them, but on they 
went up the steep height, chmb, chmb as best they 
could, with the flags wav-ing be-yond them. 

When the sun went-down, with it went the hopes of 
the foe, for they fled and their own guns were turned 
up-on them. 

Af-ter the bat-tie of Chat-ta-noo-ga, East Ten-nes-see 
was in the hands of Un-ion troops. The troops of the 
South that had held the field there, re-tired to guard 
Geor-gia, Al-a-bam-a, and North and South Car-o-li-na. 

The State of Penn-syl-va-ni-a bought a part of the 
Get-tys-burg bat-tie field for a place of bur-i-al for the 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 119 

Un-Ion sol-diers who there had fought their last fight. 
On Nov. 19, 1863, that rest-ing place for the dead 
was to be " con-se-cra-ted." Ed- ward Ev-e-rett, of Mas- 
sa-chu-setts, was to give the o-ra-tion, or chief speech of 
the day. 

Some one told Pres-i-dent Lin-coln, that he, too, 
might be asked to speak. He said he would "put some 
stray thoughts to-geth-er," and so, while in the cars on 
his way from the White House to the bat-tle-field, he 
took a pen-cil from his pock-et, and on bits of pa-per 
wrote the best speech of his life and one of the great-est 
speech-es of the world. 

Each word was of use. There were 267 words in all 
and they came straight from Lin-coln's heart. Here 
the}' are : 

" Four score and sev-en years a-go our fa-thers 
brought forth on this con-ti-nent a new na-tion, con- 
ceived in lib-er-ty, and ded-i-ca-ted to the prop-o-si-tion 
that all men are cre-a-ted e-qual. Now we are en-gaged 
in a great civ-il war, test-ing wheth-er that na-tion or 
an-y na-tion so con-ceived and so ded-i-ca-ted can long 
en-dure. We are met on a great bat-tle-field of that 
"ivar. We have come to ded-i-cate a por-tion of that 



120 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

field as a fin-al rest-ing place for those who here gave 
their lives that that na-tion might live. It is al-to-geth- 
er fit-ting and pro-per that we should do this. But, in 
a lar-ger sense, we can-not ded-i-cate — we can-not con- 
se-crate — we can-not hal-low this ground. The brave 
men, liv-ing and dead, who strug-gled here, have con-se- 
cra-ted it far a-bove our poor pow-er to add or de-tract. 
" The world will lit-tle note, nor long re-mxcm-ber, 
what we say here ; but it can nev-er for-get what they 
did here. It is for us, the liv-ing, rath-er to be ded-i- 
ca-ted here to the great task re-main-ing be-fore us — 
that, from these hon-ored dead, we take in-creased de- 
vo-tion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
meas-ure of de-vo-tion ; that we here high-ly re-solve 
that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this 
na-tion, un-der God, shall have a new birth of free-dom, 
and that gov-ern-ment of the peo-ple, by the peo-ple, 
for the peo-ple shall not per-ish from the earth." 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 121 



CHAPTER XIII. 

GRANT IN THE EAST. LINCOLN CHOSEN FOR SECOND TERM- 

Grant for his great work in the West was made Lieu- 
ten-ant Gen-er-al, and put in charge of all the for-ces of 
the Un-ion. He came East, and took the Ar-my of 
the Po-to-mac in-to his strong safe hands, and Pres-i-dent 
Lin-coln saw that he would fight to the end. 

Then the Ar-my of the Po-to-mac un-der Grant and 
Meade made a move toward Rich-mond. It met Lee in 
dense woods known as "The Wil-der-ness," and there, 
and in and a-bout Spott-syl-va-ni-a Court House, fought 
for i6 days. The Un-ion ar-my lost 37,000 men. Lee, 
who led the foe, lost vast hordes, still he would not give 
up. Grant saw that he must get neai-er to Rich-mond 
and this he did in a qui-et way by send-ing off a part of 
his ar-my from his right and march-ing it a-round to 
the rear of his oth-er troops. Then he pushed it as far 
a-head as he could on his left. Though " out-flanked," 
Lee would fall back in time to be a-gain twixt Grant's 
troops and Rich-mond. With troops so well matched 
it was hard for ei-ther to win. 



1-22 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIA'COLN 



On June 3, 1864, Grant and his men were so near 
Rich-mond, at a place called Cold Har-bor, that the 

Un-Ion for-ces made a 
strike at the works of 
the foe a-long the whole 
line. In one hours' 
time near 6,000 Un-ion 
men met death. 

When ten days had 
gone by a quick march 
to the left was made 
by Grant's ar-my and 
they all got a-cross the 
James Riv-er. They 
tried to take Pe-ters- 
burg so that they 
could cut off one source of the stores sent to the foe, but 
they found the works too strong to be seized by storm. 
Then the Un-ion troops built trench-es close up to the 
foe's works and staid there nine months. 

On the 2 1 St of June, Pres-i-dent Lin-coln rode out to 
the front. On his way back he had to pass some 
black troops who had fought well in the first charge on 




GENERAL GRANT. 



I 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



123 



Pe-ters-burg, These men had been slaves, and Lin- 
coln was the good friend who had set them free. They 
crowd-ed round him with tears in their eyes, and gave 
cheers of joy. They laughed and cried, and pressed 
up to him to shake or kiss his hand, to touch his 
clothes, or the horse on which he rode. The scene 
moved Mr. Lin-coln 
to tears, and he could 
not trust him-self to 
speak. 

There had been, 
through all the years 
of the war, fights on a 
small scale in the Val- 
ley of Vir-gin-ia, and 
each side had a chance 
to win from time to 
time. 

At last Gen-er-al 
Sher-i-dan was put in 
charge of the Un-ion 
troops on that line, but held off from a great fight till 
Sept. 19, '64, when he won at Win-ches-ter and three 




-Vff. i'/j^""^ 



GENERAL LEE. 



12i 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 












^Jft^l-ji,.*^- 




LINCOLN AND THE BLACK TROOPS. 



days lat-er at Fisher's Hill a-gainst the foe un-der Ear- 
ly. Sher-I-dan took all the stock from the Val-ley and 
burned barns full of grain, so the foe would not find 
food there, but still Ear-ly sent a part of his men af-ter 
the Un-ion troops, mov-ing so that his for-ces would not 
make a noise in the night on a lone-path till they got to 
a place where the Un-ion troops were sound a-sleep. 
The rest of his ar-my, Ear-ly kept by him to strike at 
Sher-i-dan's force in front. The bat-tie of Ce-dar Creek 
came then twixt these two ar-mies. The foe won. 
Sher-i-dan was not there but heard the guns and rode 



125 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LJKCOLN. 

up the Val-ley full speed, and with a shout to his men 
who had fled, " Come, boys, we're go-ing back ! " turned 
the tide and put down the Ear-ly troops. There were 
but few more fights, just there, for both sides had to go 
to Pe-ters-buror for the last scenes. 




"COME, BOYS, WERE GOING BACK 



I " 



While the ar-my did its best in war work, the na-vy, 
too, or men of the sea, did brave deeds. 

Ad-mir-al Far-ra-gut, who had done so much good 
work with his fleet from the North in the Spring of 1 862, 
brought fame once more to him-self in his at-tack on 
Mo-bile in Au-gust, 1864. So thathemightseeanddi-rect 
his fleet of i-ron-clads and ships of wood in the best 



126 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

way, Far-ra-gut went up in-to the main-top of the 
" Hart-ford," and at last took the forts in Mo-bile Bay. 
He closed the port, though the town was kept in the 
hands of the foe till the war came to an end. 

In De-cem-ber, 1864, when Con-gress met, the doom 
of the foe was in sight. Grant had Pe-ters-burg in his 
grip, and said he would " see the end of the job." 

With Lee's ar-my at Rich-mond, the on-ly oth-er 
large force of the foe was led by John-ston in the south. 
Sher-man with a lar-ger force made a move a-gainst it, 
and af-ter much fight-ing John-ston took his stand at 
At-lan-ta. He had fought with much skill, but the 
South failed to see this, and put Gen. Hood in his place. 
Hood was rash, and Sher-man soon forced him to leave 
At-lan-ta. From At-lan-ta, Sher-man set out on his 
great " March through Geor-gi-a," burn-ing At-lan-ta 
when he left, so that it might not a-gain be a ref-uge 
for the foe. 

In the midst of all the strife, Lin-coln's first term as 
Chief came to an end. It was asked by some, "What 
new man shall we put in Lin-coln's place?" Names 
came up, but it was hard to find a new man who " knew 
the ropes." Lin-coln, though worn with toil, had a 



2HE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



127 




SHERMAN S FORCKS LEAVING ATLANTA. 



great wish to keep his post, for he felt that he had not 
then done his full work. In his quaint way he said to 
his friends : 

"It is-n't safe to swap hor-ses when you are cross-ing 
a stream." 

In No-vem-ber, 1864, Lin-coln was once more the 



128 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




choice of the peo-ple. They told him that it was their 
wish that he should lead them, be their Chief for one 
'[ 1 \\ , more term, and take the 

"i chair on the fourth of 
March, 1865. . 

When that day came, 
A- bra- ham Lin-coln 
stood on the por-ti-co of 
the cap-i-tol and took the 
:> oath of off-ice. The 
-^-^r cloud of war which hung 
o'er the first in-au-gu-ra- 
tion, was now a-bout to 
leave. As the gloom went by, bright-er days came, and 
the sun of a new e-ra shone out up-on the land. 

The words which the Pres-i-dent said were few, but 
they will nev-er die. While Lin-coln's " Get-tys-burg 
Speech " will ev-er be praised, far more must these last 
words dwell in the hearts of men, for they show the de- 
vo-tion and ten-der love of that great soul, poured out 
to bless his chil-dren ere he lay down to die. 

The woes of Lee and his troops grew too hard for 
them to bear. Arms and food which had come to them 



^^'- 



ON THE SKIRMISH LINE. 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



129 



from ti-e South and oth-er pla-ces were now cut off. 
No more troops could join them and those who were 
on the ground were weak for lack of food. The great 
drama was soon to close. 

Sher-man's ar-my was in North Car-o-li-na. There 
were, too, " Boys in Blue" in Char-les-ton and Wil- 
ming-ton, N. C " Sher-i-dan's Cav-al-ry " was en route 

fron^ the Shen-an-do-ah to Pe-ters-burg. The last blow 

must come in a few weeks. 

Lee knew that he and his men of the South must 

hold Five Forks at all risks. They put up strong 

breast works and did what they could to hold the land 

about Pe-ters-burg. 
Grant's force was 

then twice as large as 



Lee's. Do the best he ^,>.^. ^ v^5V>% 

might Lee found him- ^.A\.:^^>An,..^^ai j* 

self out-num-bered at 

each tack and turn. The 

Un-ion men beat the 

foe and took hordes of 

them pris-on-ers at the 

great fight of Five Forks on A-prll i, 1865. While 




^ ^ 



WOUNDED SOLDIERS LEAVING THE BATTLE. 



130 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



this fight went on, some of the foe's works at Pe-ters- 
burg were stormed and one by one they fell in-to the 
hands of Grant's men. But still Lee, on A-pril 2, when 
night came on, held the line south of the Ap-po-mat- 






t. ,1 ,;■; 



mJXi 







^^ 






1 



■.ml 






CHARGE AT FIVE FORKS. 



tox. His men were worn out, for their work had been 
hard and their food scarce. 

As no news had come to Grant from Rich-mond, 
he rode out to a line where he thought he could get 
news and on his way a note was put in his hands from 
Gen. Weit-zel. It said, *' Rich-mond is ours. The foe 
left in sreat haste and have set fire to the town." 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



131 







^>f>r;^^^:::;''- - 




bOL'THERN IRuuPS KETKEATING FROM RICHMOND. 



Then all a-long the line of the Un-ion troops came up 
a great cry; " RIch-mond is ours! Rich-mond is ours!" 

But, if Lee had left, the " Boys in Blue " must make 
haste to catch him. He fled to the west with his starved 
and worn-out troops, but Grant gave close chase and 
Sher-i-dan " hung on his flanks." Lee turned this way 



132 



IHE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




it^^^KX^^'-^^.:.,! 



I'NION CAVALRY IN PURSUIT OF LF.E S ARMY. 



and that, and there were some more fights, but at length 
he had to give in. At a time when Sher-i-dan had his 
men drawn up, and the word " Charge " was al-most on 
his Hps, a white flag was seen. The man who brought 
it had come from Lee who was at Ap-po-mat-tox 
Court House. Lee had sent to ask that there might 
not be a fight till he knew what Grant's terms of peace 
were. 

At last both great chiefs met to-geth-er in the small 
town of Ap-po-mat-tox at a plain farm house. 

They shook hands and Lee asked Grant to write out 
his terms and said he would sign them. Grant drew 
up the terms and Lee signed them as he had said he 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 133 

would. Then the two great lead-ers shook hands a-gain 
and both rode off. This was on the 9th of A-pril, 1865. 

In the south, John-ston, who led the foe there, could 
make no stand a-lone, so, at the end of i 7 days, he gave 
up to Gen. Sher-man. Small sets of the foe, placed 
here and there, al-so gave up, and the four years of 
blood came to an end. 

The ar-mies of the Un-ion had put down the " Great 
Re-bel-lion " and peace had come. So vast a war had 
ne'er been known In mod-ern tunes, and men more 
brave than those who fought on both sides could not be 
found in any land. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RETURN OF PEACE ; LINCOLN SHOT ; HIS BURIAL 

AT SPRINGFIELD. 

" Pres-i-dent Lin-coln in Rich-mond," af-ter the " Con- 
fed-er-a-cy" fell to pie-ces, made a scene such as was ne'er 
be-fore known in all his-to-ry. There was none of the 
pomp and show such as a great chief in oth-er lands 



i;ii 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



would have had who put down a brave foe and gained 



a great cause. 



Lin-cohi was at the " head-quar-ters" of Gen. Grant 
at Cit-y Point on a small steam-er, "The Riv-er 
Queen," when he heard of the fall of Rich-mond, and 
that a great fire had laid low much of that place. He 

went up the riv-er 



^1 ->l 



and landed at a wharf 
near Lib-by Pris-on. 
There he found a 
black man to act as 
guide and show him 



, r^i'fcwili^^ " the way throug-h the 
i?fir3}S^"^P^ ^\SU cit-y. Soon a great 

crowd drew near the 




UNION' TROOPS MARCHING INTO RICHMOND. 



Pres-i-dent. The 
Un-ion sol-diers greet-ed him, so did those who had 
once been bought and sold like beasts. Cries of thanks 
rent the air from the race he had made free. They felt 
God had sent him. 

The crowd was so dense that Ad-mir-al Por-ter had 
to call sail-ors from his boat to march in front and be- 
hind the Pres-i-dent, so that a track might be cleared for 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 135 



him through the town. Lin-coln did not seem to think 
of fear, and no one raised a hand a-gainst him or spoke 
an un-kind word. 

The Pres-i-dent went to the house then used by Gen. 
Weit-zel, who was in charge of the Un-ion troops there 
— the same house in which Jef-fer-son Dav-is had Hved 
for months, and which he had just left in great haste. 

Lib-by Pris-on was in that town, and there hordes of 
some of the brav-est and best of the men of the North 
had starved and died. Here, too, was a pris-on where 
black slaves were kept. It was the " Rich-mond Mart" 
with its cells and grates of i-ron. The end had come 
for the pris-on, the whip, the shac-kles, the auc-tion- 
block and dri-ver. 

In the ear-ly morn of the day on which the foe's 
troops had marched out of Rich-mond, the or-der was 
giv-en to burn the bridge o-ver which they passed. At 
the same time, flames burst from win-dows and roofs of 
tall build-ings, and in a few hours 800 of them were 
on fire. 

The poor folks of the town had their arms full of 
house-hold goods, and stacks of beds, ta-bles, and chairs 
were piled up in o-pen pla-ces. Groups of peo-ple stood 



136 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Still in their fright, for their hou-ses were in ash-es and 

they had no food or clothes. 

A great hush, at last, fell on all, as the Pres-i-dent's 
:" - coach was driv-en 

to a stand in the 
"Square." Then 
Lin-coln rose, faced 
the great throng, 
and spread out his 
hands as a min-is- 
ter would when 




giv-ing a bless-ing. 
Not a sound was 
heard for more than 
a min-ute. Then 
the hor-ses went on 
and Lin-coln was 
gone. 

One more vis-it was made by the Pres-i-dent to 
Rich-mond. He then had his wife and his son "Tad" 
with him. At that time he talked with Judge Camp- 
bell a-bout the terms he would make with the foe. The 
Judge had his own i-de-a of what he would like. Mr. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON ' ' TAD. ' 



> 

CO 

> 

m 
m 

z 

> 

H 
O 

z 

O 



:^ 
m 
Ln 

O 



o 




THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



137 



Lin-coln was not of the same mind, but said, " I will 
give you in black and white my on-ly terms." 

These were plain and sim-ple. Lin-coln was kind 
but he was firm. 

Af-ter that the Lin-colns went to For-tress Mon-roe. 



<-,v*^ 



' sf<*' -■^.-^u'S ^f 














V 



THE MARCH OF UNION TROOPS IN WASHINGTON. 



^ 



There, though the Pres-i-dent was wea-ry and full of 
care, he spent hours with the sick and those in pain. 
He talked of the grand news, of the Un-ion saved by 
the brave " Boys in Blue," and of their homes and dear 
ones they would soon see. 

But when the Un-ion troops were on their way 
North, a few weeks lat-er, May 23, 1865, and 65,000 of 



138 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

them in full strength and health marched in di-vis-ions, 
in close lines, round the cap-i-tol at Wash-ing-ton, 
A-bra-ham Lin-coln, the "well be-loved," was not there 
to see them. His work was done. He had gone to 
his Re-ward. 

On Good Fri-day, A-pril 14, 1865, it was four years 
from the " Sur-ren-der of Fort Sum-ter." Ma-jor An- 
der-son had, then, when the foe's guns struck the fort, 
hauled down the Stars and Stripes, and with great care, 
put the dear flag a-way to keep for a glad day which 
should come, and a large throng of folks from the North 
had come down to Port Roy-al and Charles-ton to 
raise, with words of praise and pray-er, o'er the ruins 
of Sum-ter, that same Flag of the Free in all its 
beau-ty. 

Words were read from the Bi-ble, and all there who 
could sing, joined in a hymn. Then the Star Span-gled 
Ban-ner was flung to the breeze by Gen. Rob-ert 
An-der-son. The pa-tri-ot, Hen-ry Ward Bee-cher, 
gave at that time one of his great o-ra-tions. All hearts 
were thrilled. 

The day was a glad one at the White House. The 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM I.JXCOLX 139 

Pres-i-dent's son, Capt. Rob-ert Lin-coln, of Grant's 
staff, came home that morn, and told the tale of the last 
scene at Ap-po-mat-tox. 

The fam-i-ly took break-fast and then the Pres-i-dent 
spent an hour with Mr. Col-fax, the Speak-er of the 
House. Grant came in and all were g'lad to see him. 
At 1 1 A. M. the Cab-i-net met. 

There were many themes to speak of at that time, 
such as how to brinor back the States which had left the 
Un-ion and what to do with those who led the re- volt. 

In these first mo-ments which came af-ter the long 
four years of dark-ness, Lin-coln thought that the way 
to win the heart of the South was to be kind, and trust 
to their hon-or to stand by what the test of war had 
done. Of course they had been in the wrong and had 
lost their all, but, as broth-ers, the Pres-i-dent felt that it 
was as much to the in-ter-est of the North as it was to 
that of the South to take all means to heal wounds and 
lead and help the weak till strength came to them again. 

It was but a few nights be-fore, on A-pril ii, that 
the Pres-i-dent said words of this sort to the crowds 
which stormed the White House. In all the land, 
where true hearts beat for the Un-ion, there was joy. 



140 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Bells rang, guns roared, and thanks went up to God for 
the great work He had done. 

Lin-coln stood at the cen-tral -win-dow of the White 
House and made his last pub-lie speech. It be-gan 
with these words : 

" We meet this e-ven-ing, not in sor-row, but in glad- 
ness of heart." 

Then he went on to tell the peo-ple what he hoped 
to do for those who had lost. He said that his Cab-i- 
net was a-bout to meet, and the mem-bers of it would, 
no doubt, join with him in plans to help the South and 
bring a-bout a spir-it of true peace in the land. 

There were some folks in the South at that time, 
on-ly a small knot of them no doubt, who thought Pres-i- 
dent Lin-coln was their arch foe. They bound them- 
selves to-geth-er to do him and some of his best men all 
the harm they could. 

It was on the night of A-pril 14, 1865, af-ter the 
meet-ing of the Cab-i-net in the morn-ing, that the 
Pres-i-dent, with his wife and two young friends, went 
to see a play. Mr. Lin-coln felt wea-ry and would 
have liked to stay at home. He had been out to drive 
that af-ter-noon with his wife, and to the throngs of folks 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIACOLN 141 

who saw and greet-ed him then he had bowed, smiled, 
and, here and there, said a kind word. 

But it was not for him to rest at home that night. 
He had giv-en his word that he would go to Ford's 
The-a-tre. Gen. and Mrs. Grant hoped to join the 
Lin-colns in their box, but at the last mo-ment they 
had to leave town. 

The thought of see-ing two men so great as Lin-coln 
and Grant to-geth-er on that night drew a vast throng 
to Ford's. Cheer af-ter cheer went up as all rose when 
the Pres-i-dent came in. The band played " Hail to 
the Chief," and all hearts were glad. The Pres-i-dent 
bowed and took his seat, smil-ing as the first pleas-ing 
act was played. 

Then, just as the cur-tain rose on the sec-ond scene 
of the last act, the sound of a pis-tol's re-port fell on the 
air. At first it was thought to have been part of the 
play ; then a man was seen to leap from the Pres-i- 
dent's box and fall down up-on the stage, with a knife 
in his hand, call-ing out the Lat-in words " Sic sem-per 
ty-ran-nis," which mean " Thus al-ways to ty-rants." 

Some one shout-ed " He has shot the Pres-i-dent — !" 
Friends flew to the box and three ar-my sur-geons 



142 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



made their way through the crowd and helped take the 
great and good man, who now was near his end, out to 
a small house a-cross the street. 




ABRAHAM LINXOLN AS HE LOOKED IN 1 865, 

When dawn came and lamps grew dim, A-bra-ham 
Lin-coln's pulse be-gan to fail. Soon a calm look of 
peace came up-on his worn face and he was gone. 

The bad man who shot Lin-coln was one of that 



THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LJXCOLX 143 

knot of folks who had sworn to do him, and some of 
his Cab-i-net, harm. They said that by so do-ing they 
would " a-venge the South." Oth-er good men be-sides 
the Pres-i-dent were struck that night, but the Pres-i- 
dent, a-lone, met his death wound. 

Those who had made the plot to do that foul deed 
were soon caught and put to death. 

As the news went forth of the tra-gic death of A-bra- 
ham Lin-coln the land stood a-ghast with awe. Bells 
tolled, work stopped, and grief filled all hearts. 

As the fun-er-al pro-ces-sion mxoved from the White 
House to the church, it was seen that the es-cort was a 
reg-i-ment of black men, whose free-dom from sla-ver-y 
had come from him whose voice and hand were now 
stilled by death. 

The State of Il-li-nois said the last rest-ing place of 
A-bra-ham Lin-coln must be on that soil. Then a 
group of men in high pla-ces, Ad-mir-als of the Na-vy 
Gen-er-als of the Ar-my, with States-men and oth-ers 
made a guard of hon-or, and went on that long jour-ney 
to the tomb with the pre-cious dust, stop-ping in man-y 
cit-ies that peo-ple might look once more on the dead 
form of the man who led all oth-er men. 



^, 



144 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

On May 14, 1865, the great Cap-tain, his hfe work 
done, was laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cem-e-te-ry, 
Spring-field, Il-li-nois. 

The ser-vice was plain. There was a hymn, a pray- 
er, a few words, then the read-ing of Lin-coln's sec-ond 
in-au-ofu-ral ad-dress. 

Notes of sym-pa-thy came to the U-ni-ted States from 
rul-ers of oth-er lands. It seemed as if all the world laid 
wreaths up-on the bier of A-bra-ham Lin-coln. 

" Rest to the un-crovvned king who toil-ing brought 

His bleed-ing coun-try through a dread-ful reign: 
Who, liv-ing, earned the world's re-ver-ing thought, 
And dy-ing, leaves his name with-out a stain." 



